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# [AFRICA] WAIIS Freetown: Elumelu, Sanwo-Olu and Bio Mobilise $180 Billion to Transform West Africa
- URL: https://businessoi.media/en/afrique-waiis-freetown-elumelu-sanwo-olu-et-bio-mobilisent-180-milliards-de-dollars-pour-transformer-lafrique-de-louest-en/
- Published: 2026-10-16T08:45:25.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-16T08:45:25.000Z
- Description: Tony Elumelu, Sanwo-Olu and Bio present WAIIS: a $180 billion investment pipeline for 400 million West Africans. The summit takes place in Freetown, November 16-18, 2026.
- Author: Emmanuel TAOCHY
- Tags: Afrique, Investissement, Économie, Flash de mi-journée, #en

West Africa's private sector leaders and heads of state took a decisive step this week. Tony Elumelu, Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio presented in Lagos the investment programme of the West Africa Investment and Industrialisation Summit (WAIIS), to be held in Freetown from **November 16 to 18, 2026**. The ambition is clear: mobilise a pipeline of more than **USD 180 billion** to transform a region of 400 million people.

## Four pillars for a common market of 400 million people

The investment pipeline is structured around four complementary axes. The first targets **energy trade and industrial growth**, the prerequisite to lifting the energy constraint that holds back regional competitiveness. The second focuses on **strategic minerals and natural resource exploitation**, against a backdrop of growing global demand for metals critical to the energy transition.

The third pillar targets **agro-industry and food system transformation**, with the aim of reducing dependence on imported food. The fourth, finally, targets **digital transformation and connectivity**, so that West Africa can catch up on internet infrastructure and mobile financial services.

## Africapitalism as the driving force

Tony Elumelu, WAIIS co-chair and founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, puts Africapitalism back at the heart of the debate: it is African private capital, not just public aid, that must create jobs for the continent's youth. "Africa must build what Africans will use and what Africans will consume," Sanwo-Olu summarised.

Julius Maada Bio, host of the summit, emphasises the stakes of intra-regional reciprocity: an ECOWAS celebrating its **50th anniversary in 2026** must finally become an operational common market, capable of generating "bankable" projects attracting both public and private capital.

## A follow-up mechanism to avoid unkept promises

One of the WAIIS's innovations is the creation of a permanent secretariat to track commitments and advance projects between summits. Organisers want to avoid the pitfall of pan-African conferences where announcements pile up without execution. Development finance institutions, institutional investors and project promoters will gather in Freetown to identify de-risking mechanisms adapted to local realities.

## Why it matters

For the Indian Ocean, West Africa's dynamism is not a geographic abstraction. Mauritius, Africa's main financial hub, is already positioned to structure some of the investment flows linked to WAIIS. Madagascar and the Comoros could benefit from a revitalised ECOWAS that strengthens continental trade corridors. A USD 180 billion pipeline delivered would not only transform the West — it would reposition the entire continent.