The minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Wale Edun, has called for deeper intra-African investment and trade as a strategic response to the sharp decline in global development aid to the continent.
Mr. Edun made the call on Thursday at the 5th B2B Agribusiness Matchmaking Event in Abuja with the theme “Catalysing Arab Africa Trade: Unlocking New Frontiers in Food and Agribusiness Trade”, where he stressed the urgent need for African economies to look inward for sustainable growth. The Arab Africa Trade Bridges (AATB) Programme is being held at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.
According to him, concessional financing and overseas development assistance to developing nations have continued to dry up, with Africa recording a 9 per cent decline in 2024 and an expected 17 per cent drop in 2025, based on African Development Bank projections. He said the retreat of multilateralism and shrinking aid flows underscore the necessity for African countries to rely more on domestic resources, regional capital, and private-sector-driven investments.
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“African countries are facing with high debt burdens in many cases, high debt servicing requirements that are gulping up funds that could otherwise be used for public investment but it was also emphasised that really it is the private sector that is the real source of investment, whether it’s foreign direct investment, whether it’s domestic investment,” he stated, adding that “The world has turned away from multilateralism, if you take out maybe the willingness for international cooperation in perhaps health sector in some cases and definitely in the area of climate, the multilateralism of the last decades since the Bretton Woods institutions rose is fast receding.
“Concessional financing and even flows, overseas development assistance flows to developing countries, to Africa have turned negative, were down by nine per cent last year 2024, by 2025 the flows will be down perhaps by some estimates, AFDB’s estimates, 17 percent so we have to look inward, we have to trade more with each other, we have to grow our economies together, the savings of our people being invested in productive activity.”
Founder and chief executive officer of Welcome 2 Africa International, Bamidele Seun Awoola, said the organisation is working with its partners to facilitate at least 10 major trade deals worth a minimum of $100 million between African and Arab markets.
Speaking at the B2B Agribusiness Matchmaking Event, she explained that while she would not speculate on the current value of Africa-Arab trade, her organisation had set clear internal targets aimed at unlocking new commercial opportunities, strengthening regional linkages and boosting value-added production in Nigeria. Awoola said the emerging engagements with investors and agribusiness operators indicated strong prospects for surpassing the $100 million target.
Awoola emphasised that a key focus of Welcome to Africa International is to promote industrialisation through joint ventures that bring manufacturers and processors into Nigeria. According to her, Nigeria’s comparative advantage in agricultural production must be matched with processing capacity to create jobs, deepen value addition, and accelerate economic growth.
By connecting producers to processors and facilitating structured partnerships, she said the organisation hopes to support Nigeria’s broader ambition of building an industrial base that benefits local communities and expands regional trade.
Awoola added that the matchmaking programme was designed to deliver tangible outcomes rather than serve as another ceremonial gathering. She said her team carried out a rigorous market analysis to identify what African countries–particularly Nigeria–can supply to meet demand in the Arab world, and invited only stakeholders capable of closing real investment and trade deals.
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With strong interactions already recorded on the opening day, she expressed optimism that the event would yield multiple partnerships, joint ventures and wealth-creating opportunities that align with Nigeria’s long-term development vision.
A milestone of the Abuja meetings was the signing of two Membership Agreements with Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire. The First agreement signed with the Federal Republic of Nigeria, represented by the Federal Ministry of Finance, formally joined the AATB Programme and includes initiatives that advance trade promotion, improve export competitiveness, and focus on key sectors such as agribusiness value chains and small and medium enterprises. It also supports national capacities in areas such as logistics, industrial development, and market access.