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in mind the metropolis for its contradictions: the squalor and the splendour, the dysfunction and the magnificence, the outdated pressed in opposition to the new. It was a metropolis I couldn’t simply neglect.
Nearly 20 years later, Bangkok is again in my thoughts for a really totally different purpose.
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 part of him, making the case to buyers 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 generate profits.
To show its dedication, 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 should current 23 transactions with a complete capital requirement of $42.7 billion throughout transport, power and fuel, agriculture, business, housing and city companies at the conferences.
There is nothing uncommon a few authorities courting buyers. In truth, there may be 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 overseas 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 circumstances for stronger overseas direct funding. These should not points {that a} polished presentation can resolve. They require proof of progress that buyers can see, assess and belief.
Nigeria can entice cash with out attracting sufficient long-term buyers. Portfolio capital can transfer comparatively shortly when yields, change charges and market circumstances change. But a manufacturing unit, railway, energy plant, logistics community or industrial facility can’t be moved so simply. These are exactly the sorts of investments Nigeria says it desires to draw in Bangkok.
But there may be an oddness to those journeys that’s tough to disregard. Nigeria is endlessly 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 latest conferences with buyers in France. That uncertainty issues, particularly at a time when buyers are weighing Nigeria’s alternatives in opposition to 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 usually should go overseas to make the case?
This query is extra revealing than any roadshow presentation. It forces the authorities to contemplate what’s on buyers’ minds, somewhat than merely what Nigeria desires to supply them.
Nigeria doesn’t want one other gross sales pitch. It must persuade buyers that the dangers of doing enterprise in the nation may be recognized, understood and, most significantly, decreased.
Those dangers function at three ranges: the nation, the venture and the price of constructing it perform.
At the nation stage, the investor desires 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 stage, the questions are: Can I value the danger? Can the venture generate predictable money flows? Can the infrastructure help it?
These questions decide whether or not a possibility is price the funding. The drawback is that buyers are pricing each Nigeria and the initiatives on supply. An excellent railway venture can nonetheless be unattractive if buyers imagine the surrounding regulatory, foreign money, political or cost dangers will overwhelm its economics. A venture’s promise can’t be separated from the surroundings through which it should function.
Then there may be the price of constructing the funding perform. Consider a hypothetical investor keen on constructing a world-class most cancers hospital in Nigeria. The funding may 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 tools. The investor should calculate the price of constructing the hospital perform.
What will it price to safe a dependable electrical energy provide? How predictable is the strategy of importing specialised medical tools by Apapa Wharf? Will port clearance and different procedures work effectively, or will delays improve prices? Can the hospital rely on dependable web connectivity? What extra bills might be required to guard its employees, sufferers and tools?
Every personal workaround for unreliable infrastructure, inefficient processes or insufficient safety provides to the price of doing enterprise. This is why Nigeria’s infrastructure drawback will not be merely a improvement drawback. It is an investment-pricing drawback.
That is what Oyedele and Oduwole ought to prioritise. The extra pressing activity is to make these transactions investable by higher preparation, credible ensures, predictable regulation, acceptable local-currency financing, stronger venture sponsors, clear procurement and mechanisms that make danger measurable and, the place attainable, transferable.
A roadshow can introduce initiatives to buyers and generate curiosity. It can’t, by itself, repair the circumstances that decide whether or not these buyers 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 must turn into higher at telling buyers that the nation is a chance. It must turn into higher at making that chance not possible to disregard.
Adeola Akinremi is a public coverage advisor, strategic communications professional, 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 international markets and may be reached at: adeola@hintells.com
