President Bola Tinubu on Saturday called on West African leaders to harness the region’s vast youth population and natural resources to drive industrialisation, innovation, and sustainable growth or risk falling further behind.
Opening the inaugural West Africa Economic Summit (WAES) in Abuja, Tinubu described the region’s young demographic as a “powerful asset” that could become a liability without urgent investment in education, digital infrastructure, and job creation.
“Our prosperity depends on regional supply chains, energy networks, and data frameworks. We must design them together or they will collapse separately,” Tinubu warned.
President Tinubu, who chairs ECOWAS, stressed the need for collective action to dismantle trade barriers and boost intra-regional commerce, which currently lags at under 10 percent. “West Africa must coordinate or collapse,” he said.
He urged a break from the “pit to port” model of raw material exports, calling instead for investment in value-added industries, local processing, and manufacturing to position the region for the next industrial revolution.
“We cannot afford to miss this one,” he said. “Our minerals power tomorrow’s green tech but we must become value-chain smart.”
The president underscored the central role of the private sector in driving transformation, saying government must create the right legal and policy environment while entrepreneurs lead the charge.
“The real transformation won’t come from government alone, but from unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit of our people,” he said.
Challenging summit delegates including heads of state, business leaders, and development partners, Tinubu called for bold, coordinated action and concrete outcomes.
“Let’s leave this summit with clear deliverables: easier business conditions, stronger trade ties, better infrastructure, and innovative solutions that lift our people from poverty to prosperity,” he urged.
