President Bola Tinubu has called on West African leaders to harness the region’s demographic strength and vast mineral resources to drive industrialisation, innovation, and job creation.
Speaking yesterday at the opening of the inaugural West Africa Economic Summit (WAES) in Abuja, President Tinubu described West Africa’s youthful population as its greatest asset but warned that this advantage could become a liability without deliberate investments in education, digital infrastructure, and enterprise.
“This demographic promise can quickly become a liability if not matched by investments in education, digital infrastructure, innovation, and productive enterprise,” the president cautioned.
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Highlighting Nigeria’s ongoing investments in skills development, digital connectivity, and youth empowerment, Mr Tinubu stressed the importance of regional cooperation, arguing that prosperity in the region hinges on shared infrastructure and economic frameworks.
“No one country can do this alone. Our prosperity depends on regional supply chains, energy networks, and data frameworks. We must design them together—or they will collapse separately,” he said.
The Nigerian leader, who also chairs the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, urged West African nations to dismantle trade barriers and improve economic integration, lamenting that intra-regional trade remains below 10 per cent.
“We must coordinate or collapse,” he said, calling for urgent reforms to enhance cross-border trade and connectivity.
On the need to move beyond raw exports, President Tinubu called for investment in value-added industries powered by the region’s mineral wealth.
He urged leaders to shift from a “pit-to-port” economy and prioritise local processing and regional manufacturing.
“Our rare minerals power tomorrow’s green technologies, yet being resource-rich is not enough; we must also become value-chain smart,” he said.
“The era of ‘pit to port’ must end. We must turn our mineral wealth into domestic economic value—jobs, technology, and manufacturing.”
He also emphasised the role of the private sector in transforming the region’s economy, noting that the government’s role is to create a stable, market-friendly environment.
“The fundamental transformation will not come solely from the government, but from unleashing our people’s entrepreneurial spirit,” Mr Tinubu stated.
He urged summit participants—including heads of state, business leaders, and development partners—to commit to concrete deliverables that would make the region more competitive, investable, and inclusive.
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“Let us emerge from this summit with actionable outcomes: a renewed commitment to ease of doing business, enhanced intra-regional trade, improved infrastructure connectivity, and innovative ideas that move our people from poverty to prosperity,” he said.
The summit drew participation from key regional stakeholders, with discussions focused on boosting trade, investment, digital growth, and infrastructure development across West Africa.
