Lagos has stepped up its campaign to position itself as Africa’s leading destination for global investment, with President Bola Tinubu declaring the state an increasingly important gateway for international capital seeking access to the continent’s fast-growing markets.
Opening the Invest Lagos 2026 summit in Victoria Island on Monday, Tinubu, represented by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, said Lagos had moved beyond its traditional role as Nigeria’s commercial centre and was now emerging as a strategic platform for trade, enterprise and investment across Africa.
“Lagos is not merely Nigeria’s commercial capital; it is increasingly becoming the gateway to Africa’s economic future,” Shettima told delegates gathered for the three-day conference.
The vice-president attributed the city’s growing appeal to a combination of economic reforms, institutional development and a business climate that continues to attract multinational corporations, technology firms and foreign investors.
He argued that Nigeria possesses the demographic strength, entrepreneurial energy and market scale required to become one of the world’s largest economies by the middle of the century, provided investments in infrastructure, innovation and human capital are sustained.
The conference, themed “Lagos: Business Gateway to Africa, Powering Africa’s Next Era of Trade, Talent and Global Economic Leadership,” brought together investors, policymakers, development institutions and business executives to examine opportunities across sectors ranging from technology and manufacturing to infrastructure and finance.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu used the occasion to reaffirm his administration’s ambition to build a globally competitive city capable of attracting long-term domestic and foreign investment.
“Our vision is to build a Lagos that competes with the best cities in the world, where businesses can flourish, innovation can thrive, and investors can achieve long-term value,” he said.
Yet the summit’s most expansive vision of Lagos’s future came from Commonwealth Secretary-General, Shirley Botchwey, who argued that the global economy was undergoing a profound transformation rather than a temporary period of uncertainty.
“The global economy is not just experiencing a passing period of turbulence; it is going through a structural shift,” she said.
According to Botchwey, investors are increasingly evaluating destinations through the lenses of trust, talent, regulatory stability and long-term growth potential rather than short-term returns alone.
“The question is no longer simply where is the highest return. It is where is the trust, where is the talent, where is the regulatory confidence, where is the long-term growth story?” she said.
She presented Lagos as one of the few cities capable of answering those questions convincingly, describing it as “a city of proof” rather than merely a city of promise.
“Lagos is proof that Africa’s growth story is real. It is proof that enterprise can move faster than expectations and that young people with ideas can build globally competitive companies,” she said.
Pointing to the rise of Nigerian technology firms such as Flutterwave, Paystack and OPay, Botchwey argued that Lagos had already demonstrated its capacity to nurture businesses capable of competing on the global stage.
Inviting delegates to imagine the city in 2050, she envisaged a Lagos powered by cleaner energy systems, connected through efficient transport networks and driven by a generation of entrepreneurs building world-class companies from within Africa.
“That is not a fantasy,” she said. “It is a realistic prospect if we make the right strategic choices — and the work begins here.”
Botchwey also highlighted the economic advantages of the Commonwealth, noting that trade among member states is significantly cheaper because of shared legal traditions, language and institutional frameworks.
“An advantage unused is only a statistic,” she said, urging governments and businesses to convert those structural advantages into jobs, investment flows, stronger supply chains and sustainable growth.
She identified reliable electricity, efficient logistics networks and improved security as among the most urgent priorities for unlocking the continent’s economic potential, while calling for greater investment in education and skills development.
“We must ensure that young people are not spectators to growth, but its drivers and beneficiaries,” she said.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, told participants that ongoing fiscal and tax reforms were helping to strengthen investor confidence and create new opportunities for growth across Nigeria.
A key feature of the summit was the Governors’ Investment Showcase, where leaders from Lagos State, Abia State, Imo State, Nasarawa State and Plateau State presented opportunities in sectors including infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, technology and tourism.
Despite the competition for investor attention, Lagos remained the focal point of the discussions, using the summit to reinforce its ambition to become the principal entry point for businesses seeking a foothold in Africa’s rapidly expanding consumer economy.
For policymakers and investors alike, the gathering reflected a broader effort to recast Lagos not merely as Nigeria’s economic engine, but as one of the continent’s most influential centres of commerce and innovation.
