The United Arab Emirates has positioned Nigeria as a major destination for multi-billion-dollar investments spanning agriculture, technology, infrastructure, mining and trade, with the country\u2019s Minister of Investment, Mohamed Alsuwaidi, admitting that Gulf capital is currently underexposed to Africa\u2019s largest economy.\n<\/p>\n
Alsuwaidi said this at the first Investopia Africa event held in Lagos on Monday, where discussions surrounded a wide range of opportunities that could translate into investments running from hundreds of millions to several billions of dollars, depending on sector readiness, regulatory clarity and the availability of credible local partners.\n<\/p>\n
The PUNCH reports that as of 2025, trade relations between the UAE and Nigeria reached $4.3bn for non-oil commodities.\n<\/p>\n
Speaking during a fireside chat with Nigeria\u2019s Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, the UAE minister said, \u201cOpportunities around agriculture. The UAE has big interests in companies like Louis-Dreyfus and Unigroup. So, investment in agricultural land is for the export of products. You know, that\u2019s a couple of hundred million, maybe. I think investment around infrastructure, whether it\u2019s in public transport, utilities, power, water or wastewater recycling, is crucial.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Again, it depends on legislation and opportunities. It could be in the tens of millions if I look at it from that perspective. I think in terms of connectivity and trade facilitation, whether it\u2019s through capital or whether it\u2019s through infrastructure like warehousing or others. A few billion there. I\u2019m throwing out the billions here, just quantifying numbers in my head.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the technology space is huge. We talked about smart metering, fibre-optic laying, small data centres, and cloud solutions. Again, in the billions. You can\u2019t build a data centre for less than $100m today. Then mining. Again, huge opportunity. Requires a lot of infrastructure. I see a lot of opportunity.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
However, he cautioned that the pace at which investment commitments materialise would depend largely on information flow, market familiarity and the ability to identify reliable partners.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, translating that is getting information, being able to find either a private sector or a government to be a partner with a government or private sector on my side,\u201d he said. \u201cMaking sure that they have all the information to make the right decision.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Alsuwaidi trashed the notion that trust was the primary barrier to deeper UAE\u2013Nigeria investment ties, arguing instead that market understanding and partner identification were the real challenges.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think trust is an issue. I do think understanding markets is an issue,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re not familiar with the market. You don\u2019t know how to approach it. You don\u2019t know who the partners are.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He stressed that private-sector engagement would be central to unlocking deals, describing business-to-business interactions as more effective than government-led initiatives.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there are more deals to be done at the private-sector level,\u201d he said. \u201cThese events are the most crucial. Because you gather 300 people in a room. You exchange cards. You make some friends. And you have a good dinner. And that leads to a lot of money made with partners.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of Investopia, Dr Jean Fares, described the UAE\u2019s role as a global investment and trade hub capable of helping Nigerian producers, exporters and technology firms access markets across Asia, Europe and beyond through its logistics, digital and financial infrastructure.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at the UAE, its strong suit is the connectivity,\u201d Fares said. \u201cWhen you look at sea and air, with the carriers and with the ports; when you look at digital infrastructure, some of the fastest high-speed internet, the number of landing cables, the access to capital, and the access to data centres.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the credibility of the UAE\u2019s financial system and regulatory environment was a key attraction for investors.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe financial services and the credibility of them that we built, both in DIFC and ADGM; the rule of law and the enforcement of that; and the protection of investors,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
Fares added that the UAE had evolved beyond being a regional hub to becoming a global connector linking Africa with Asia and Europe.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UAE is becoming a dominant hub in the GCC, but also a connector of places like Africa to Asia and Asia to Africa and Europe,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re trading with Asia, then you should have some kind of representation in the UAE.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He noted that while the UAE continued to attract global capital, it was increasingly focused on deploying capital abroad, particularly in under-represented markets such as Nigeria.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we want to attract capital into the UAE, we\u2019re also keen on moving capital out,\u201d Fares said. \u201cWe\u2019re very conscious that we\u2019re underweighted in Nigeria. And we need your help to identify those opportunities where we can place short-term and long-term capital to grow.\u201d <\/p>\n
Oduwole, speaking with journalists after the fireside chat with her UAE counterpart, said, \u201cSo key businesses are here; you\u2019ll be hearing from them all through the afternoon. It\u2019s a short, crisp half-day event, and the afternoon is B2B. And then there\u2019ll be follow-up meetings. There\u2019s an Investopia session at the end of March in Abu Dhabi. And then there\u2019s a session in Milan, which is focused on Africa. Nigeria is leading the charge. We\u2019re already talking about it. We listened to the minister, my counterpart, the Minister of Investment from the UAE. He was actually pulling out ballpark figures of where he thinks solid minerals, critical rare earths, lithium, and tin are \u2013 areas where Nigeria is really ready to absorb that capital. So, we\u2019ve assured them that we\u2019re here for them. And this is what we\u2019re going to be doing throughout this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see the FMITI family behind me. We\u2019re going to be bringing in key investors. We\u2019re going to be pushing out our nano-exports across the region through the UAE as a hub. And so surely the best is yet to come. We are excited. The subnationals are involved.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The role of states was highlighted, with Lagos State cited as a key example. Oduwole said, \u201cThis ministry is an enabler. We work with all arms and levels of government. We\u2019re here today. Investopia has been hosted in Lagos State. It\u2019s a federal thing; you know, a number of other state governments are represented. We put Governor Sanwo-Olu on the infrastructure panel to speak to the UAE audience. We cited the Lagos\u2013Calabar Coastal Road. First Abu Dhabi, a UAE bank, was one of the first to put in capital. And we have the promise of all that the real estate down that corridor will become. So, you look at Abu Dhabi, you look at Dubai, and just imagine what that coast is going to look like in a few years.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSub-nationals: every business is domiciled in one state or city or another. And the way FMITI works, whether it\u2019s from small businesses (you have SMEDAN) or from NEXIM, is they\u2019re working across businesses all across the country. So that is what we do. That is who we are. And we\u2019re ready.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
On tracking investment outcomes, officials said Nigeria relies on clear metrics to measure traction. These include public investment announcements, capital inflows recorded by the Central Bank of Nigeria, and data from the National Bureau of Statistics. They added that job creation figures and multiplier effects are also used to assess impact.\n<\/p>\n
Infrastructure projects were cited as clear examples of measurable economic impact. Using the Lagos\u2013Calabar Coastal Road as a case study, the minister said the project has already created livelihoods, generated informal economic activity, and demonstrated the tangible, quantifiable multiplier effect of construction and infrastructure spending.\n<\/p>\n
Oduwole told the UAE minister and investors, \u201cI\u2019m glad to hear you say you\u2019re ready to take the plunge and to deploy that capital. And you\u2019re looking at the African region and Nigeria in particular.\u201d \\\n<\/p>\n
She assured investors of government support in structuring and executing deals: \u201cWe\u2019re here for you. We\u2019re here to take the capital. Every challenge is an opportunity. I\u2019m committing personally on behalf of my president and on behalf of the private sector that we will facilitate these deals to make sure that they\u2019re done properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who sat on a panel discussion themed \u2018Infrastructure and Logistics for Africa\u2019s Next Phase of Trade\u2019, said the state had focused on creating a secure, efficient and business-ready environment capable of absorbing large-scale investments.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do we ensure that the environment in which those investments are going to happen is safe and secure and has the ability to receive that capital?\u201d Sanwo-Olu said. \u201cWe\u2019re business-ready, we\u2019re safety-ready, and we\u2019re equipped.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He highlighted transport, digital and infrastructure projects undertaken to improve mobility and productivity.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last four years, we\u2019ve activated two rail projects. We\u2019ve activated our waterways. Just two weeks ago, we signed a commitment with one of the telecoms that wants to do about 30,000 kilometres of fibre optics in Lagos,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
Sanwo-Olu also noted that the state would soon be unveiling the Lagos International Financial Centre.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had extensive conversations around the path of the Lagos International Financial Centre. The Lagos State government is cooperating with EnterpriseNGR. We started this journey about eight months ago. We still have about another eight months to go before finally unveiling it. But the beauty of it is the amount of global support that we have. It\u2019s like we\u2019re trying to put the Abu Dhabi Financial Centre and Dubai Financial Centre, or even the London Financial Centre, apart from the Lagos International Financial Centre. So that\u2019s the level of audacity that we\u2019re bringing.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to learn from all of these various regions to bring about a model that will be a true African model that will work for everyone, but it will also be a Nigerian model. So, I\u2019m here to let you know that we are actually thinking global. We\u2019re thinking about how to remain competitive, how to remain resilient, and how to be able to play on the same level of profit with other big cities and other big markets in the world. So, Lagos is positioning itself, leading the Nigerian competition, and we\u2019re getting tremendous support from the federal government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Also speaking, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Abubakar Dantsoho, said Nigeria\u2019s port infrastructure had not kept pace with its population and economic size but that reforms were underway.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest economy, with the highest population on every continent, has the biggest seaport,\u201d Dantsoho said. \u201cNigeria is doing two million TEUs with over 250 million people.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He said the Federal Government had approved major port modernisation projects to address the gap.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Federal Government has given approval for the port modernisation of Tin Can Island and Apapa Port,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the near future, Nigerian seaports are going to be number one in Africa, which is where we naturally belong.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The Investopia Africa event brought together senior government officials, investors and private-sector leaders from Nigeria and the UAE, with participants emphasising that sustained engagement, credible partnerships and project readiness would determine how quickly stated commitments translate into capital deployment.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United Arab Emirates has positioned Nigeria as a major destination for multi-billion-dollar investments spanning agriculture, technology, infrastructure,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[5083,10574,84,50668,1294,61767,464,81957,151235,151236,138647,18166,151237,8720,86,10039,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-405740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-agriculture","tag-bilateral-trade","tag-business","tag-economic-development","tag-economy","tag-foreign-investment","tag-infrastructure","tag-infrastructure-investment","tag-investopia-africa","tag-jumoke-oduwole","tag-lagos-state","tag-mining","tag-mohamed-alsuwaidi","tag-nigeria","tag-technology","tag-uae","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}