by Adeola Akinremi
In July 2007, I attended the second session of the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Thailand. It was my first actual encounter with Bangkok, and I keep in mind the metropolis for its contradictions: the squalor and the splendour, the dysfunction and the magnificence, the previous pressed towards the new. It was a metropolis I couldn’t simply overlook.
Nearly twenty years later, Bangkok is again in my thoughts for a really totally different motive.
Next week, Nigeria’s financial czars will journey to Bangkok. Dr. Taiwo Oyedele, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, will board an plane, carrying with him a pipe of promise, packaged in a cultured presentation. Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, will be a part of him, making the case to traders at the 2026 World Bank/International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings that Nigeria stays a rustic of immense chance. They will pitch Nigeria as a spot the place capital can come, develop and become profitable.
To exhibit its willpower, the Federal Ministry of Finance has put up a vibrant, animated touchdown web page on its web site, full with a countdown clock, outlining its plans and priorities for the Bangkok mission. The authorities says it can current 23 transactions with a complete capital requirement of $42.7 billion throughout transport, vitality and gasoline, agriculture, business, housing and city providers at the conferences.
There is nothing uncommon a few authorities courting traders. In truth, there’s proof that Nigeria is attracting capital. The IMF says Nigeria’s monetary account recorded a web influx of about $5.9 billion in 2025, primarily from portfolio funding. Net international direct funding improved to about $2.8 billion, nonetheless lower than one per cent of GDP.
The IMF has additionally pointed to the significance of a reputable macroeconomic and foreign-exchange framework, predictable regulation, dependable infrastructure and safety in creating situations for stronger international direct funding. These will not be points {that a} polished presentation can resolve. They require proof of progress that traders can see, assess and belief.
Nigeria can entice cash with out attracting sufficient long-term traders. Portfolio capital can transfer comparatively shortly when yields, change charges and market situations change. But a manufacturing facility, railway, energy plant, logistics community or industrial facility can’t be moved so simply. These are exactly the sorts of investments Nigeria says it needs to draw in Bangkok.
But there’s an oddness to those journeys that’s troublesome to disregard. Nigeria is perpetually travelling seeking capital. London. New York. Washington. France. Now Bangkok.
We don’t but know the way a lot funding will come from President Bola Tinubu’s current conferences with traders in France. That uncertainty issues, particularly at a time when traders are weighing Nigeria’s alternatives towards the dangers that shadow their choices.
And that raises a query Nigeria ought to be asking itself earlier than one other delegation boards one other plane. If the alternative is as compelling as we are saying it’s, why does Nigeria so typically need to go overseas to make the case?
This query is extra revealing than any roadshow presentation. It forces the authorities to contemplate what’s on traders’ minds, quite than merely what Nigeria needs to supply them.
Nigeria doesn’t want one other gross sales pitch. It must persuade traders that the dangers of doing enterprise in the nation might be recognized, understood and, most significantly, decreased.
Those dangers function at three ranges: the nation, the venture and the price of constructing it operate.
At the nation degree, the investor needs to know: Can I get my cash out? Can I depend on the guidelines? Can I implement my rights? Are the courts swift, or does justice drift?
At the venture degree, the questions are: Can I worth the danger? Can the venture generate predictable money flows? Can the infrastructure help it?
These questions decide whether or not a possibility is value the funding. The downside is that traders are pricing each Nigeria and the initiatives on provide. A superb railway venture can nonetheless be unattractive if traders consider the surrounding regulatory, forex, political or fee dangers will overwhelm its economics. A venture’s promise can’t be separated from the surroundings through which it should function.
Then there’s the price of constructing the funding operate. Consider a hypothetical investor excited by constructing a world-class most cancers hospital in Nigeria. The funding might serve Nigerians and, by extension, sufferers from different African international locations. But the investor doesn’t merely calculate the price of shopping for land, establishing the hospital and putting in medical gear. The investor should calculate the price of constructing the hospital operate.
What will it price to safe a dependable electrical energy provide? How predictable is the technique of importing specialised medical gear via Apapa Wharf? Will port clearance and different procedures work effectively, or will delays enhance prices? Can the hospital rely on dependable web connectivity? What extra bills might be required to guard its employees, sufferers and gear?
Every non-public workaround for unreliable infrastructure, inefficient processes or insufficient safety provides to the price of doing enterprise. This is why Nigeria’s infrastructure downside isn’t merely a improvement downside. It is an investment-pricing downside.
That is what Oyedele and Oduwole ought to prioritise. The extra pressing process is to make these transactions investable via higher preparation, credible ensures, predictable regulation, acceptable local-currency financing, stronger venture sponsors, clear procurement and mechanisms that make danger measurable and, the place potential, transferable.
A roadshow can introduce initiatives to traders and generate curiosity. It can not, by itself, repair the situations that decide whether or not these traders commit their cash. That requires coordinated motion throughout authorities, credible establishments and a willingness to deal with the sensible constraints that make doing enterprise in Nigeria costly and unsure.
At the finish of the day, Nigeria doesn’t have to change into higher at telling traders that the nation is a chance. It must change into higher at making that chance unattainable to disregard.
Adeola Akinremi is a public coverage advisor, strategic communications knowledgeable, and the founder and CEO of Hintells, an AI-powered intelligence platform serving companies and diplomatic missions in Washington, D.C. He has intensive multilateral expertise advising on governance, financial and coverage reforms throughout world markets and might be reached at: adeola@hintells.com
