The Vice President, Kashim Shettima has called on serious investors to take unfettered advantage of Nigeria’s growing investment climate to tap from the limitless opportunities in the country and the African continent.
Shettima made this call on Tuesday during a forum titled, “Roadmap to Co-create Investment Opportunities for Africa’s Frontier Markets,” at the ongoing annual meeting of the 2025 World Economic Forum ( WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
According to a release by his spokesman, Stanley Nkwocha, at the session which was co-chaired by Mirek Dusek, Managing Director of World Economic Forum, and chaired by Marie-Laure Akin Olugbade, Senior Vice President, African Development Bank (AFDB) group, discussions focused on the Humanitarian and Resilience Investing Roadmap for Africa.
He told the forum that the tales they hear about the country and the African continent as a whole were really not that of doom and gloom as being painted by doomsday proponents.
The Vice President noted that Nigeria was poised to invade the global business platform with modernisation and robust investments, assuring that President Bola Tinubu, a seasoned chartered accountant, was working to make the nation an investment destination in Africa.
“For 20 years, I have been in the Nigerian banking industry. I was a general manager in Nigeria’s largest bank, Zenith Bank. I grew up in that ecosystem. The President himself is a seasoned chartered accountant. So, I believe that Nigeria is ready for business, Nigeria is ready to embrace the path of modernization with very robust investment,” he declared.
Acknowledging however that the nation may still have certain deficits, Shettima pointed out that Nigeria was looking up to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to address the challenges.
“We are having a huge deficit but we are looking forward to the AfCFTA and that involves investing in infrastructure. For instance, the coastal highway from Calabar to Lagos is the largest single investment in Africa. We are building corridors to the North.
“We have the West African gas pipeline. We are thinking ahead of time akin to the Belt and Road Initiative. We are partnering with 14 African countries to invest in gas infrastructure down to Morocco.”
Shettima insisted that Africa was not all about tales of doom and gloom, maintaining that the continent has woken up from its slumber.
Likening Napoleon Bonaparte’s opinion about China to the case of Africa, the Vice President said, “So, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the stories you hear about Africa are not that of doom and gloom. From DRC to Somalia, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire, Africa is waking up from its slumber.
“I remember what Napoleon Bonaparte said about China, he said “China is a sleeping giant but when she wakes up, she will rattle the world”. So, Africa has woken up and we will take our rightful place in the comity of nations because as I said earlier, the trajectory of global growth is facing Africa. We are the youngest continent.”
