It is on record that Abuja, last September, played host to leaders across all the divides of the 19 states of the North who converged to make public a presentation of the region’s 10-year industrial and investment plan organised by the Northern Elders Forum, NEF.
Many Northerners see this as a first-ever timely conscious attempt by the region’s leaders to rise up to the challenges of poverty, unemployment, and underdevelopment confronting it for years now.
The summit, themed “Unlocking Strategic Opportunity in Mining, Agriculture and Power (MAP)”, brought together investors, policymakers, and business leaders to explore new growth pathways for the Northern region.
Many see this approach as a good initiative by the NEF for taking responsibility for its development through conscious, concrete, and concerted efforts as the region’s strategic saving grace.
It is not in doubt that identifying agriculture and mining as focused areas contained in the plan is indeed an excellent take-off point. Consequently, the need for stable power and security which the Federal Government should be made to prioritise cannot be overemphasised.
Equally important is the dire need for access to finance, which is mostly seen as a great challenge facing the region’s businesses.
In his goodwill message at the 2-day summit, Managing Director of Anchora Advisory and Chair of the UK Institute of Directors (IoD) Africa Group, Joel Popoola, called for a renewed focus on unlocking Northern Nigeria’s vast economic potential, describing it as key to Nigeria’s and Africa’s prosperity.
According to Popoola, Northern Nigeria possesses the population, landmass, and natural resources to transform not only Nigeria but the entire continent.
Also speaking, Prof. D.D. Sheni, Director-General of NEF, said the event marked “a decisive pivot from rhetoric to execution” in Northern Nigeria’s development journey.
Declaring the summit open, President Bola Tinubu, represented by Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to reviving Northern Nigeria’s economy through partnership and institutional capital mobilisation.
The summit also featured exhibitions of investment opportunities by the 19 Northern Nigerian States’ Investment Promotion Agencies and Corporate Sponsors.
Delegations from Turkey, India, Canada, Bangladesh, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia also attended, expressing readiness to invest billions of dollars in the region’s growth sectors.
The summit featured strategic showcases, high-level addresses, panel discussions, and masterclasses exploring sectoral strengths, challenges, and investment opportunities in mining, agriculture, and power.
A communiqué signed by the Chairman of the NEF Board of Trustees, Professor Ango Abdullahi, announced the establishment of the Northern Nigeria Economic Development Council (NNEDC), a new coordinating body to drive industrialisation, attract investment, and harmonise development policies across the northern region. It would also serve as the institutional framework for implementing a Northern Nigeria Economic Development Masterplan, focusing on security, policy coherence, and private capital as pillars for the region’s economic transformation.
The newly created NNEDC will operate under the joint oversight of NEF and the Northern Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NNGF), coordinating the implementation of the Northern Nigeria Economic Development Masterplan (NNEDM).
A Joint Implementation and Monitoring Taskforce (JIMT) will oversee transitional actions and publish an operational roadmap within 60 days. The NNEDC will issue quarterly scorecards to track measurable outcomes such as jobs created, energy capacity added, and investments mobilised.
NEF reaffirmed its commitment to transparency, accountability, and inclusive prosperity as it leads the region into a new era of coordinated economic transformation.
The region has significant deposits across states of gold, copper, lithium, tantalite, granite, among others, for local processing and mineral-based industrialisation and regional supplier ecosystems.
Participants at the summit emphasised mobilising capital-market instruments such as infrastructure funds, sukuk/green bonds and project bonds to finance generation, transmission, distribution and off-grid/mini-grid solutions.
They called for the adoption of standardised PPP frameworks and model contracts, with transparent procurement and risk-allocation, to accelerate infrastructure delivery.
Also worthy of attention is the need to institutionalise land administration reforms (digitised cadastre, clear titling, time-bound consent), with Community benefit agreements and grievance redress mechanisms.
The maiden summit brought together more than 300 stakeholders to unlock strategic opportunities in Mining, Agriculture, and Power across the 19 Northern States.
It is, however, worth noting that the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, should join hands with NEF to facilitate the growth and development of the region.
For now, most people see the plan to raise funds for the building of a new national headquarters of ACF in Kaduna as a misplaced priority.
