NEW YORK, September 23, 2026 – “Nigeria is giving investors a clearer way to see opportunities that extend across state lines and into West African markets,” according to the Minister of State for Regional Development, Hon. Uba Maigari Ahmadu, who told USAFRICA Business Week® 2026, in a keynote on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s regional development agenda at the September 23 gathering during United Nations General Assembly high-level week.
USAFRICA Business Week®️, convened by Pacetas Agency, a trade and investment advisory firm, is a U.S.–Africa business and policy engagement platform held in New York during United Nations General Assembly week. Executive Director, Gbenga Omotayo, said the platform is designed to serve as a gateway to regional trade, helping participants identify the right African markets through market insights, strategic dialogue and deal-focused engagement.
Hon. Ahmadu was later joined by Dr Mariam Temitope Masha, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Regional Development Programmes. Together they made the case that coordinated planning can help investors identify where to build, who to work with, and how a project can reach a market larger than one state. They highlighted that Nigeria’s Ministry of Regional Development now oversees development commissions serving the country’s regions, including the North Central, North West, North East, South East and South West, as well as the Niger Delta and South South. The officials’ further stated that these regional structures can help reframe the gaps in roads, power, agriculture and other infrastructure, painting them into a more coherent development picture.
Both women illustrated their point using a processing plant: having a factory site may feel like a milestone, however, reliable energy, farm supply, transport to other states, and access to buyers all affect whether the investment works. Speaking further, the speakers tied Nigeria’s domestic regional planning to President Tinubu’s wider West African economic agenda, in which he has urged ECOWAS to become a production base, with more manufacturing, regional value chains, and trade among neighbouring countries. His administration has also described more efficient borders, digital customs processes and adoption of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System as parts of its effort to make African trade easier. Regional coordination can show how those pieces connect, where public investment is needed, and which private partners can participate.
Against this backdrop, the message for prospective partners was practical: assess a Nigerian project by the supplies it can draw from neighboring states, the infrastructure it needs and the customers it can reach. Better regional planning and trade systems could reduce friction, though each proposal still requires its own commercial and regulatory due diligence.
USAFRICA convened the exchange as part of its focus on capital, policy and market access across the U.S.–Africa corridor. Follow-up will determine which regional opportunities can be defined, prepared and taken to prospective partners. Hon. Ahmadu and Dr. Masha’s conversation gave USAFRICA Business Week a national counterpart to its separate “Investing in Abuja” session. Both discussions asked how public priorities can be translated into projects that investors can evaluate and can be beneficial to Nigerian businesses and communities.