By Samuel Akpan
Nigerian billionaire and Heirs Holdings Chairman Tony Elumelu is driving a proposed $15 billion investment pipeline to finance critical infrastructure across West Africa and tackle the region’s deep infrastructure deficit.
In an email response to Bloomberg questions reported on Thursday, the co-chair of the West Africa Integration and Investment Summit (WAIIS) said: “This is about identifying and unlocking real projects that can transform energy, trade and opportunity across our region.”
Elumelu explained that viable projects from several countries are being packaged and will be presented to financiers including United Bank for Africa, Afreximbank, Africa Finance Corporation and Africa50 ahead of the inaugural summit in Sierra Leone in November.
“We are prioritising energy, trade, industrialisation, strategic minerals, agriculture and digital infrastructure because these are the foundations West Africa needs to grow faster and compete,” Elumelu stated, adding that the effort has drawn strong interest from project developers.
Special Envoy Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella disclosed that organisers received 170 proposals and shortlisted 26 projects from more than 10 countries valued at over $10 billion.
“We expect that portfolio to reach $15 billion or more,” he said.
The summit, initiated and convened by Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, will bring together governments, investors and development finance institutions to accelerate financing for the selected strategic regional projects.
Among the schemes under consideration is a natural gas pipeline that would move gas from Nigeria through multiple West African countries to Morocco, with onward connections into European energy markets.
PerSecondNews reports that the $15 billion pipeline is an investment portfolio of critical infrastructure projects across West Africa, not a single physical pipeline.
It aims to finance and close the region’s infrastructure deficit by packaging viable projects and presenting them to major financiers.
The portfolio is being prepared ahead of the West Africa Integration and Investment Summit (WAIIS) in Sierra Leone in November.
Organisers have already shortlisted 26 projects from more than 10 countries (valued at over $10 billion so far) and expect the total to reach $15 billion or more.
One of the highlighted projects within the broader pipeline is a natural gas pipeline that would transport gas from Nigeria through several West African countries to Morocco, with links into European energy markets.
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