AQUARIAN CONSULT'S AFRI-CARIBBEAN INVESTMENT SUMMIT 2026 (DAY FIVE)

0:00 from dialogue to coordinated action through institutions, policy and financing. I'm Ka Barage and as always I stand here proudly representing St. Kits and Neas, a small island with a powerful voice. We are building something here and it is real. And today we take it a step further. Please stand with me for the national anthems of Nigeria and St. Kitenas bee our own

0:45 land tri we Nigerians and brought to servering more the land. Our flag shall be a symbol that truth and justice r in peace all and this we count us

1:32 to hand onto our children above our meet our st. Oh God of all creation, grant peace our request. Help us to build a nation when no man is oppressed. And so with peace and plenty blessed.

2:21 Oh land of beauty, a country where peace support thy children stand free on the strength of will and love with God in all our struggles. Saint K and leave us free. All nation bound together with our common destiny. The small we stand for just

3:10 with wisdom and truth we will serve and honor thee. know he can coner. Oh God is showing his lasting sh forever to stand. Thank you. Please be seated. Your Excellencies, very distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. It's an honor to warmly welcome

3:58 you to day five of the Afrey Caribbean Investment Summit. I looked up the number five and its significance. And five signifies change, balance, and freedom. change because the conversations we have here have the power to redefine partnerships, trade, and cultural exchange. Freedom because our unity gives us the power to chart our own cause on our own terms. And balance because true collaboration means mutual respect, equal opportunity, and a shared seat at the table. Today is significant because it's not just another gathering. It's a deliberate alignment under the theme one voice one vision advancing Africa Caribbean unity.

4:44 We're choosing to move forward as one people with one purpose to transform dialogue, interaction and connection into lasting impact. In true Nigerian fashion, we have three major tribes. The houses will say baraka desa, the eos who say no and the eurob say. Your excellencies, very distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, my name is A the host and it's an honor to welcome you to day five of the Aquarian Consult AfroCaribbean Investment Summit. Please a round of applause for yourselves. Before we move on, we want to sincerely apologize for starting late due to some circumstances beyond our control. But what's most important is that we've

5:30 started and it's going to be like a moving train till the very end. >> Ladies and gentlemen, our first address focuses on the role of development finance in unlocking opportunity. The most profound economic work is often the least visible. Not the billion naira infrastructure deals or the henline investment announcements, but the work of ensuring that the people at the base of the economic pyramid, the microenterprise owners, the market traders, the informal sector workers who power the daily life of Nigerian communities actually have access to the capital and the support they need to grow. That is the work of our next

6:16 speaker. That is the work our next speaker oversees every day. Miss Mayabel Unangi is the executive director of public sector and intervention programs at the Bank of Industry, appointed as part of President Tinubu's new leadership team for the institution in 2024. In that role, she oversees the design and implementation of tailored financial and non-financial solutions specifically created for Nigerians at the base of the economic pyramid and for microenterprises operating across the country. It is in many ways the most human-facing mandate at the bank, the one where the institution's impact is felt most directly by the most people.

7:04 She brings to that mandate over 30 years of deep financial services expertise built across Nigeria's banking sector. She holds a bachelor of law from Amadu Bellow University, Zarya, was called to the Nigerian bar in 1987 and is an honorary senior member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. three decades of financial sector experience combined with an intimate understanding of how intervention programs are structured and delivered and a genuine commitment to the communities that are designed to serve. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome executive director public sector and intervention programs Bank of Industry Nigeria, Miss Mayel and

7:51 who is representing Dr. on the super oiss. Uh thank you very much for that warm introduction. Uh good afternoon your excellencies uh distinguished partners, stakeholders, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the invitation and the opportunity to present and contribute to

8:37 this important contri conversation happening this week. I bring you warm greetings from my managing director and chief executive of the Bank of Industry, Dr. Olashuk Oluci, whom I'm representing at this forum. He's unavoidably absent since his apologies. He's also at a meeting happening at this time and also another official engagement. Thank you. So just a little introduction about the Bank of Industry. At the Bank of Industry, our mission and mandate is to drive Nigeria's industrialization by providing financial and business support to enterprises while delivering

9:25 inclusive and sustainable growth. This is anchored on our 2025 2027 corporate strategy designed as an impact strategy. This is focused on delivering measurable outcomes across the real economy. The strategy is built around six priority areas. MSMES, gender, youth and skills, digital infrastructure and climate financing with partnerships as a key strategic enabler enabling us to mobilize capital drisk investments and scale impact. In this regard, the focus of this

10:11 session, enhancing policy frameworks for Afrey Caribbean trade and investment is both timely and critical. It strongly aligns with our approach linking policy, investment, and execution to drive sustainable trade and investment outcomes. It speaks to a shared priority across our regions. how to continue to deepen and scale ongoing efforts moving from intent to more practical investment driven collaboration that delivers real economic outcomes. Africa and the Caribbeans share strong complimentary

10:57 across Greek manufacturing, creative industries, tourism and technology. The opportunity before us is therefore not just to increase trade but to continue to deepen value chain integration linking production processing and markets across both regions. At the same time there are opportunities to further strengthen regulatory coordination and alignment across jud jurisdictions to reduce complexities and improve the ease of doing business. Continued progress in aligning trade, investment and industrial policies will further enhance effectiveness and investor confidence.

11:42 There is also the need to continue strengthening investment promotion and facilitation efforts, building on existing platforms to deepen deal origination, enhance investment matchmaking, and provide more coordinated end-to-end support for investors. Financing remains a critical enabler. There is a clear opportunity to scale existing financing mechanisms including long-term capital guarantees and risk sharing instruments to support businesses seeking to expand across regions. Blended finance will continue to play an important role in d-risking investments and crowding in private capital into

12:29 high impact sectors. Equally strengthening enterprise capacity and value chains will be critical. Ensuring that businesses are not only enable to access finance but also positioned to compete and scale across markets. Looking ahead, there's a strong opportunity to continue to build a more integrated AfroCaribbean investment ecosystem. This includes strengthening coordinated sector strategies in areas of shared strength, deepening collaboration between development finance institutions and key stakeholders and continuing to

13:14 develop bankable pipelines and structured investment platforms that can sustain investment flows. So our call, the African Caribbean Partnership, presents a significant opportunity to redefine collaborations for shared prosperity. The focus now must continue to be on execution. Turning intent into investment and partnerships into impact by strengthening investment platforms, deepening bankable pipelines and scaling co- financing across institutions. So on behalf of my managing director and the bank of industry, we affirm our commitment to continue to partner, coin

14:01 invest, and support initiatives that unlock industrial growth, strengthen value chains, and expand trade across regions. So let us continue to move beyond dialogue to delivery. Building a connected investmentdriven ecosystem that drives industrialization, job creation and delivers sustainable impact. Thank you and God bless you.

15:06 Thank you very much, Ma, for that inspirational address. We're going to be moving very swiftly into the first panel of the day, enhancing policy frameworks for AfroCaribbean trade and investment. Moderating this panel is Miss Soya Aleni. Miss Soya, please a round of applause for Miss Soya. Every nation that wants to grow needs investment. It needs the confidence of domestic businesses that the environment is fair and predictable. And it needs the trust of international investors that their capital will be welcome, protected and deployed in a market that

15:52 is serious about its own potential. Creating that confidence, building the structure, the relationships and the reputation that makes a country genuinely investable is one of the most consequential mandates in any government. And our next panelist holds this. Miss Aishari is the executive secretary and the CEO of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, NIPC, the federal agency charged with encouraging, promoting, and coordinating all investments in Nigeria, an Africa's largest single investment promotion authority. She was appointed by President Bolatinu in October 2023 and arrived at the role with one of the most relevant professional profiles imaginable. She's a lawyer with over 30 years of experience in international

16:38 commercial law, foreign investment, project finance, and regulatory compliance. She began her career at Ajumobia and OKK in 1991. Spent time as a project finance attorney and worked as a senior vice president at GWI Consulting in Washington DC. and went on to co-found the Africa Law Practice, a pan-African commercial law firm operating across eight African jurisdictions. She holds an LLB and LLM from the University of Buckingham and a post-graduate diploma in organizational leadership from the SE business school at Oxford University. Since taking office, she has moved with clear purpose repositioning NIPC from a passive registry to an active responsive

17:25 investment promotion engine. She has prioritized rebuilding trust with domestic investors as a foundation for foreign confidence, forged a landmark with the Ministry of Finance Incorporated to create a national investment and assets registry and a pipeline of bankable federal projects and launched joint global road shows to bring serious capital to Nigeria's most promising sectors. She has said simply responsible, credible, sustainable and inclusive investment is what she is here to promote. Nothing more, nothing less. She's the right person for the right mandates at exactly the right moment. Distinguished guest, ladies and gentlemen, representing Miss Aishi is

18:10 Abdullahi Sheru. Please a round of applause for him as he joins us on the panel. If you want to understand where Grenada is going economically and who is building the bridges to get there, there are few better people to speak to than the man who chairs the institution at the center of that effort. Ambassador Dr. Richard A. Nixon is the chairman of the Grenada Investment Development Corporation, the GIDC, the national agency responsible for promoting, facilitating, and enabling investment into Grenada across every sector of the economy. He also serves as Grenada's non-resident ambassador to Southeast Asia, a posting that speaks to his long-standing view that Grenada

18:56 cannot afford to look only to its traditional partners, but most actively court relationships with Africa, Asia, South America, and beyond. He holds a doctorate in business administration from Victoria University and a portfolio of qualifications spanning electronic engineering, international finance and business and has built a career that moves with ease between diplomacy, real estate development, telecommunications, and international investment facilitation. His work at the GIDC reflects a vision he has articulated consistently and compellingly that Grenada's future prosperity depends on its ability to diversify its economic partnerships, tie together its key

19:43 pillars tourism investment citizenship by investment and education into a coherent offer for the world and think regionally and globally while acting locally. He has pointed to the data from Africa Caribbean investment forums with striking clarity, billions of dollars of business discussed, deals, signs, relationships formed. And he has said plainly that Grenada must position itself to capture its share of that opportunity. He is one of the most globally connected Grenadians in public life and he is using that connectivity in service of the island. Please welcome Ambassador Dr. Richard Allen Nixon.

20:33 There are people in every institution who carry something that cannot be recruited or appointed. A living memory of why the institution was built, what it was designed to do, and what it has learned across decades of trying to do it. There are the people who remember the founding philosophy not as something written in a charter but as something they helped to make real. Our next panelist is one of those people and his presence at the highest advisory level of Nexim today is not a coincidence. It is the institution knowing where its deepest knowledge lives. Mr. Hope Yongo is the technical advisor to the managing director and CEO of the Nigerian Export Import Bank, Nexim, and one of the

21:20 bank's pioneer staff members, having joined at its inception following its establishment under the act 38 of 1991. Over more than three decades of continuous service, he has watched Nexim grow from its earliest operational days through every phase of Nigeria's export development story and he has been an active participant in that story at every stage. He has represented the bank at high level regional and international forums including representing the acting managing director of Echowas and the African Development Bank on the landmark Sealink project. a trans regional shipping initiative designed to reduce the crippling transport cost that keep

22:07 interaffan trade at it as at a fraction of its potential. He has been a consistent voice on the financing of Nigeria's agrop processing and non-oil export sectors, insisting year after year that the cocoa, the cassava, the sesame, and the ground nuts that Nigerian farmers produce should not leave this country as raw commodities to be processed elsewhere when the opportunity to add value and retain that value exists right here. He had said plainly and without qualification that the Nigerian economy remains hu hugely untapped. The Nexim has done well but can do more that the future matters more than Nostalger for

22:53 what was built. It is a philosophy that reflects everything about the kind of adviser he is. cleareyed, forwardinking, and deeply grounded in an institutional knowledge that only 30 plus years of commitment can build. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr. Hope Yongo, technical advisor to the managing director and CEO of the Nigerian Export Import Bank, Nexim Nigeria, representing Mr. Al-Haji Abu Bakar Abba Bellow.

23:50 So, good morning everyone. As we can see, we have a very high powered panel here this morning. And so, I'm going to start off with a few questions. So, to my immediate left, I would just like to ask What policy reforms are most critical to unlocking stronger trade and investment flows between Africa and the Caribbean? Good morning everyone. My name is Abdullah Shiu Shiru from the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission NIPC Abuja Nigeria.

24:36 I'm here to represent my CEO chief executive Miss Aisha Remy who is unavoidably absent. She was here two days ago. She attended a session two two days ago but because of uh another engagement somewhere so she has directed me to represent her here. Please I sent in her apology. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I want to make this uh session more lively so that the team of the event one voice one vision will continue to ring bell

25:22 after this session. Before I go straight to the the question, NIPC is the only agency of government settled with rep responsibility of um encouraging, promoting and coordinating all investment opportunity within the Nigerian ecosystem. We promote both FDI and DDI. Our function is to attract FDI and encourage DDI within the ecosystem. We do that by telling the whole world

26:09 for leaders that the best place to invest in the entire continent is Nigeria. We sell our country by organizing what we call investment promotion activity in which we carry most of our business people from Nigeria across the world to go and meet their counterpart and start business. The commission is also responsible for investment facilitation. Our job is to see that investors are comfortable.

26:55 That's why we created a structural reform in NIPC which is onetop investment promotion center. We have about 13 agencies of government who are responsible in making sure the investors are comfortable. We have the CAC and other organizations. We carry our investors hand in hand from point of registration up to the point of them commencing their business. We do policy ad advocacy by listening to the existing investors knowing their challenges

27:42 so they will be able to coordinate all these challenges and put them together and send it to the policy makers for them to act on summarily that is what we do in NIPC. I'll answer the question with just four point but before I do that one voice one vision environment if I have it the sky is the limit. I recall a few days ago our former president,

28:28 president shared a kind of testimony in an event in Lagos where he said one of the African country president invited him for a launch. But when he get there, the same president asks him, "Mr. President, how did you make billionaires in your country?" The president replied, "I never made any billionaires in Nigeria.

29:13 What I did was to create an enabling environment and those who took advantage of that enabling environment are the billionaires today in Nigeria. If you don't have the right structure, you don't have the right reform regulatory framework, there's no way we can move our economy. One voice, one vision. Now to go straight to the point, there are four different deficiencies.

30:00 The first fundamental issue is this. Whether we like it or not, the trade between Africa and the Caribbean is less than 1% inflow. This is the truth. Why do we have all these challenges? the regulatory framework, the payment system, funding and logistics. I will explain the regulatory framework. Look at African continental

30:49 after the Caribbean community car they are working at cross purposes why can't they come together African and Caribbean can come together and decide to say hey we want to achieve result how do we do it If actor and car come together and say okay before we make any policy before we create any in incentives let's harmonize and align together we'll be able to go from there if you look at the logistics

31:36 to move goods from Nigeria or Africa to the Caribbean Island is a very difficult one to ship things from here. Very difficult one to move from here Africa into the Caribbean also a very difficult situation. What do we do to solve this problem? The solution is this. Why can't we come today together again and fix and see the possibility of having a direct flight from here to the Caribbean island.

32:24 The third point is the finance. Most of the uh most of the business the small business in Nigeria they find very difficult to assess finance especially in Africa and the Caribbean island. What we need to do is to encourage the international financial institutions like Afric I believe they are doing that right now trying to finance most of the small scale industries so that they'll be able to carry their business within the Africa and the Caribbean island

33:13 and lastly the payment system forex We have challenges with forex everything forex. Why can't we design our own way or means of solving this problem by creating a platform where the African and Caribbean business people can operate and at the same time why can't we even look at outside the box and see the possibility of coming together and propose a common currency to ease business between the African and

33:59 the Caribbean island. We have the opportunity. Opportunity is not our problem. What our problem is is execution. If we can fix these four structural issues, I believe in the next two, three, five years, business between the Caribbeans and Africa and Caribbeans will grow between 50 to 60%. That is my submission for Okay. Thank you, Mr. Siri. That was a very in-depth um presentation. I think you've covered most of the areas. So, I would just quickly go over to Ambassador

34:46 Richard Nixon. I think Mr. Shiri uh has set a very good tone in terms of just going doing an overview of your uh agency and uh also if you can also share some of your insights on how these regulatory or policy reforms can assist cross regional trade. >> Certainly. Uh good morning everyone. Well, afternoon. Should have been morning, but good afternoon everyone. First, allow me the opportunity to share a little overview of the Caribbean marketplace. It's a population of over 25 million people. Yes, we're very small islands, but together, like they say in Jamaica, we are Talawa. We're strong. We've got a good group of us. About 80% of the

35:33 Caribbean region is ocean with more than 700 islands, reefs, inlets, caves, caves in the Caribbean Sea. So basically, we have more resources in the water than on land. So think about that. 2% of our region is inhabited with about 32 named countries. The countries gained independence from Spain, Netherlands, France, and the UK, and some the United States. There are four major languages being spoken, English, French, Spanish, and Dutch. And this is very important for the way forward between, I think, Africa and the Caribbean. We have trade agreements with

36:20 global partners covering an access to a market of more than a billion people. Let me say that again. We have trade agreements with global partners giving us access to a market of over 1 billion people. We have the EPA agreement with the United Kingdom. also the EPA with uh Europe, the CBI, not citizenship by investment, but the Caribbean based initiative program with the United States, the CARACOM region itself through a single market and economy program and the trade agreements we have with Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. So, it kind of opens up the region now. It's not just our small islands anymore. It's

37:07 a much larger grouping. So to share a little bit about who we are, the Grenada Investment Development Corporation, one second. Yeah, we established by legislation from the government to focus on attracting investment both domestic and foreign in Grenada. And this spans all sectors of the economy uh from health care to tourism and tourism byproducts uh marine agriculture, renewable energy. All across the entire board, we've been charged with creating partnerships and creating investment

37:54 vehicles to promote these projects in in in the global marketplace. I think for for uh for for this purpose is AfroCaribbean we we have to we have to focus and I'm speaking in a context of the OECS in particular. We're small islands. We cannot do everything. We all cannot do the same thing and expect to be successful. I I really think that uh we need to focus on an island basis in where your strengths are and what opportunities you'd like to target. For example, in Nigeria, the market is

38:39 fantastic. It's huge, you know. So, let's focus on for example, Grenada can focus on healthc care, you know, uh St. Kits on agriculture, another one on tourism. Let's focus in centers of excellence within the OECS so we don't all go after the same thing. If we do this, we'll be sitting here in another 10 years having the same conversation. So this is one of the things that I I I would like to promote and and director Jules, I'm glad to see you applauding because this should probably fall in your lap in helping us and guiding us through this this process. what are the strengths and how can we

39:25 uh attract and work with different countries like Nigeria and Ghana and and Kenya and you know it's so vast here it's so vast and if we all try to do the same thing and follow each other and going after the same opportunities it's not going to work and and and I think taking this on a more political scale we that's is how we can have joint joint embassies, you know, throughout the OECS region and everyone knows what the mission is. You, you know, we can have one ambassador for the OECS here in Nigeria or some other place and we all know that if something in tourism comes up, it goes to this country. Something in agriculture, it goes there. Not that everybody's going after the same thing.

40:12 And I think this would really help u streamline how we approach uh this market here. So those are some of my initial comments. >> Thank you very much ambassador. You raised very good points particularly from the perspective of small island states being able to coordinate with each other and being able to identify strategically where they can be able to leverage their competitive advantage. I think that's also the same if I if I take I am bold enough to say u for the consulant as well what to leverage and collaborate and coordinate so that you can be able to uh access markets in a more um targeted and effective manner and strategic manner right because we have to be able to maximize our limited resources and so with that we're going

40:58 to turn away from the investment promotion agencies and we're going to go to the credit agency and with us we have ambassador Abu Bellow so ambassador If you do not mind, I'm not going to give you the same question. I'm going to ask you a bingo question. So, can you share with us a bit about the evolving role of export credit agencies and development finance institutions as enablers of cross regional trade? And if you have any success stories that you could share with us from your agency, you can also start the discussion by giving us a little bit about yourself and your organization. Okay, thank you very much uh for the

41:44 question and uh thank you moderator for your kind comments on me. I was wondering whether it was me you are highlighting but I realize you are in the age of AI so kudos to you and uh thank you for those kind comments. The Nigerian Export Import Bank technically is an export credit agency. Uh and in layman's language we are just an export development bank but Nex mandate is more than an export development bank because we are an export credit agency. So that means part of our work is about investment facilitation and the promotion of export of services.

42:32 That means services when you invest in another country it is time and export of services. So that means if we encourage investment from Nigerians to the Caribbean is term export of services. So these are some of the things that we do. So and as an export credit agency we have fundamentally four roles. One is financing where we provide uh uh credit facilities in both local and foreign currencies. Second is risk mitigation whereby we provide uh uh risk management instruments like insurance and guarantees for purposes of credit enhancement.

43:18 Uh and then thirdly we provide trade advisory and then lastly we do we uh we participate in export development. So these are majorly the four roles that we play in our activities. So our activities essentially like I said is to drive export. uh and in doing that a lot of things has to come into play and I like what my other sub panelists uh say and I think I need to piggyback it so that uh it makes uh sense uh like the the ambassador said we need to

44:04 we need to have center of excellence and I think that's just the idea uh one of the things that I believe we can do in this kind of Africa Caribbean uh partnership is for business twining. You bring your expertise, I bring my funding. You bring your expertise on technology and I bring the resource base. And let me tell you one of the things that just to give you the practical experience. We went to Barbados uh two three years ago uh and we got talking to the Barbados export development and one of the thing that struck me was Barbados has a very good phtoary system and partnership with the United States and

44:51 Nigeria is having difficulties with that aspect. So one of the things we suggested about that why don't we partner we have a lot of cashew Americans like cashew so we can do primary processing of cashew and then you can do the packaging of that cashew in Barbados or Caribbean and take it to the American markets. So you see that is a win-win situation whereby we do primary value addition and then you do further primary addition and it goes to the shelf. That is a no-brainer. That's nobrainer because people everybody will succeed about it. And secondly, how do we achieve that? Because NIPC said we have connectivity issue. If I have to go to

45:36 uh Caribbean, the last time I went to Caribbean, I had to go through British Airways. No direct flight connectivity and there is no direct shipping connectivity. So one of the things that we can do is to sit down now and I think we share the idea and we say see why don't we arrange because uh the moderator said we had Nexim is trying to promote what we call the regional ceiling project. The idea is to have shipping connectivity so that uh we can trade amongst ourselves. uh and one of the things we do is say okay why don't we do a trans shshipment arrangement whereby the Caribbeans now can consolidate all outbound cargo to Africa and put it in Caribbean then

46:22 Nigeria or any of the African countries can now have the outborn cargo that's going to Caribbean and then we put it there then you do trans shshipment both way are doing trans shshipment and with that you can see that we'll begin to trade with one another and we'll begin to leverage reach what we already have. So that means if the ceiling vessel is here, I just go to either Barbados or anywhere that is there uh discharge the cargo by then they have aggregated all Africanbound cargo and I trans ship it back to Nigeria. with that these are typical uh arrangement that can help and I'm also happy he mentioned something about healthcare because when I went to Barbados and when I went to the Bahamas too I noticed that they have a very good

47:08 health care system and the Americans used to come there and they even have schools for that. So these are some of the things that we can now begin to dive say okay how do we promote medical tourism because these are to me these are very simple thing we all go to Egypt which is an African countries okay we go South Africa but most of us go to India uh Thailand for medical tourism there is a way that we can promote this one because that's the beginning because that's investment and that's tourism when you begin to do that you begin to see there are science to it so Now what do we do with regards to policy framework and with regards to funding intervention with regard to policy framework? You see we have to be very int intentional. We have EPAs economic

47:56 partnership agreement but the problem is most times they are not domesticated. You know we may have regional EPA that are not domesticated. So we have to have it in a way that it has to be deliberate. You see when you have a deliberate policy it attracts the investment that will come with it. And I like what NIPC said about the former president Obas Sanjjo. Obas was very deliberate. He said in the next 5 years or 10 years then he was saying Nigeria used to be net importer of cement. He said in the next 10 years I want Nigeria to be net importers exporters of cement. and he was very deliberate and there was deliberate policy and support for it today Nigeria is a net exporter of

48:43 cement that's what deliberate policy does and he did that with with fruit juice he said no no no I give you two years I don't want fruit juice uh our chef because then our chef go to supermarket 100% also of our fruit juices are imported he said within 2 years you have to have domestic fruit juice and truly Today you hardly will you see falling yes you see them in the context of fair trade but majority of it is uh done in Nigeria but that's what deliberate policy does so from the funding perspective you see we can provide instrument and one of the instrument that we can provide is that we can provide because as an ECA we can

49:28 provide political risk insurance you see the problem about investment is that investors would like to go to any economy that has good microeconomic environment and they would like to take commercial risk but there's a devil in those investment which is political risk anything can happen in the polit and that's what nexim does and that's what Afreeximm does and that's what MIGA the world bank does where subs sovereigns are concerned so these are instrument that we can all bring and say okay uh uh Caribbean investor are you coming to Nigeria what credit enhancement or what risk mitigation instrument we can give you we can now say okay we can provide you with political risk instrument if we don't

50:14 have the capacity because instrument are given according to capacity because let's assume you are bringing billions of dollars investment or Nigeria is taking billions of dollars investment and nexum doesn't have that capacity then we can syndicate we can now bring afra we can bring MIG we can bring everybody and then with that we can have the capacity uh for those investment to come and why do you need that? You need that most critically because if you look at the world investment report said that the global investment gap annually is 2.5 trillion. So it's not only Africa and Africa they are looking for investment all over the world they are looking for investment. So how do you make your investment attractive? It is using this instrument. And the sad thing for us

51:00 especially in Africa over the past 10 years there is systematic decline in FDI to GDP ratio. It has declined to almost 1.5%. So it's declining. So that's why deliberate uh policy of government and then the provision of this uh uh credit and investment enhancement instrument will be the thing that will spore those investment and be an incentive uh for them to come and do that investment. >> Ambassador seems as though I should have gotten you to help me with my microphone this time. So, Ambassador, I'm very very pleased to see that you were able to pull out a

51:46 really practical example and show the relationship with Barbados and the ideation that is occurring. And I think you touch on an extremely important point, being intentional with your policy design because once it is well structured, you'll be able to crowd in the funding and be able to achieve what you're seeking to do. So, I I mean, I'm just motivated by hearing you. So at this point in time, I'm just also going to jump in here and throw another bingo question in place. You know, I like to play bingo. So in terms of regulations, you know, everyone doesn't ever like to talk about regulations. Often times we say that we're looking at reducing regulatory barriers in the context of trade facilitation. Is the issue really barrier reduction or

52:32 investment and financial services reform? So, I'm going to ask who wants to take that tough one. >> Let me start. Okay, let me start. >> Let's bite to my chops here for a minute because the information we just got is fantastic. I would like us to translate all this into practical, tangible solutions. And if I may stray a little bit, I think it's part of your notes, but I think it's a good way to to to segue. There are solutions in place. There are lots of solutions in place. We need the political and economic will to do this. Okay. The one of the reasons the the

53:20 banks are hesitant is because we don't prepare good sound business plans. We come with a good idea. We have uh something that makes sense. There's no capital structure, no SWAT analysis, no return on investment, no not how much equity you're going to give up, how you going to get it back. We just have good ideas. We need to turn these things into good sound business plans that make sense. And then when the risk is a little bit high, then we go to the export credit agencies to get an insurance wrap or stuff around this. You know, a lot of times we sit and depend on government for handouts and to do things all the time. That needs to stop. Let's grow up, put up a put on a big

54:05 boy's pants and get some good sound business plans in place. Now, once these are in place, then which bank would not want to invest or fund and make money? So, how do we do this? You have to show that there's a market for your goods and services. We just talk about the stuff in Barbados. Every Caribbean island that's under the Caribbean-based initiative have the same capacity. And this is what I I was alluding to earlier. We need to focus in who does what because one island cannot do everything although they may want to but let's share the love and we all grow together as a region. We have to stop this crab in a barrel mentality. Let's

54:51 focus. as be strategic in our approaches and get things done. Regarding logistics, I think Nigeria and Ghana ship stuff weekly to Brazil. Lot of stuff going to Brazil. Why can't we piggyback on that train and have a ship running up and down the Caribbean bringing the stuff from Africa up through the islands? Then that same ship goes back down bringing stuff that Nigeria needs and send it back. There's a lot of stuff that we can we don't have to reinvent the wheel and say, "Okay, we need a megaton ship coming to St. George's Harbor or Kingston Harbor and that's oh, we can't do it because the ship is too big. The

55:38 capacity the the business isn't there. Let's start with what's already in place. You ship to Brazil now. You ship stuff to the Caribbean, but it goes through the north. We want to keep things south to south. So, let's look at these different opportunities. Let's put a business model in place in how we can make this happen. So, then the question is, okay, so the ships and containers go back empty. Well, containers going to go back anyways. So, let's try to find some ways to put some of our products and services, our spices, our rums, our fish, you know, some enhanced products, you know, whatever the Caribbean have, we need to learn from you in what the

56:24 Caribbean has that you need on this side of the world. But most importantly, education is critical. We're getting to know each other. We're getting to understand each other better. Conferences like this helps a lot. Afreexum is I think they've done four conferences. They're doing one in in St. Kits in July. I would like to see most of you there. So, let's stop courting each other. Let's stop flirting and get married. Let's start doing some work. Yeah, let's start doing some work together. I want to just take up from that point that you raised the one with respect to the capacity of MSMES to be able to develop business plans and I want to

57:10 take that question and want to give it to Ambassador Abello. Are you seeing that same dynamic um here in the continent with challenges with um micro and small businesses being able to develop adequate business plans to access the funding? And if so, does your agency provide any technical support or no? Okay, thank you for the question. um one is yes we provide the support because that's why what the fourth role that I say next in place is uh export development and in doing that we have what we call project preparation facility and the idea of the project preparation facility is to make sure that projects are prepared in a way that they become feasible and bankable so

57:56 that they can attract those uh those capital. Secondly is to make sure that project you know why we remain underdeveloped. I always say is because we have what we call pure water projects. They are too small you know because they are too small they you don't see the impact. So you really need to scale up and in scaling up to attract the kind of investment that can provide uh uh that economies of scale that can bring those needed investments and uh technology that can so with that uh we we do it and then the second thing and which is very very fundamental is that

58:43 there should be policy framework that should mainstream informal sector there's so much informality you know uh especially in the Nigerian economy and one of the things that we are doing to mainstream those informal sector is to incentivize them that they can avail working capital funding you know if you go to the formal channel of banking most of themmemes will not qualify for funding and that's why we're trying to promote uh factoring as a service and the idea of the factoring is that it provides anme that doesn't have the qualified collateral access to working capital from either a company a factor or a bank that is uh has interest

59:32 in providing that because it's based on the performance that that you do. So these are some of the things that are very interesting. I'm glad to hear that this support is also being provided through your agency. We have some agencies in the criminal also provide set support. But I want to just jump now to Mr. Siri and ask him a question with regards to we're talking about policy and policy frameworks. Can you give us a sense of some of the incentives that are facilitated to be able to encourage investment here in Nigeria? >> Thank you very much. When you look at quarter 2 of 2025,

1:00:18 the inflow of EBD to Nigeria was about $90 million. Quarter three of the same year jumped to $720 million. The trend continues like that. What happened? The right structure, macroeconomic policy and the current policy on FX trigger the old. Once you have the right structure on ground, everything will follow. We had in the last administration the ways and means of over $30 trillion

1:01:05 wasted. Investors are looking Some airlines could not even repatriate their I mean uh profit back to their country. They had to leave. So when this new government came in and look at the structure and look at the deficit and the reason why inflows are not coming as expected, they fix that. The FX policy, liberalization of uh FX, forces of demand and supply determining the FX in Nigeria. Investors can repatriate the business at

1:01:54 any point in time. When you look at our GDP and the foreign exchange we have in Nigeria, what triggered it? Before we used to produce 1.2 million barrels per day. Now is about 1.8 to 2 million barrels per day. Our earnings in the oil sector has gone up. We have some existing investors in Nigeria. When they make their profit, instead of repatriating that profit back to their country, they reinvest such money back to their business, which

1:02:41 gives investors a confidence that Nigeria is stable. So, we attracted FDR into the economy through this restructuring of most of these policies. And when you look at the recapitalization in the banking sector, it's part of it set stock uh I mean security and exchange commission and the stock exchange they are recapitalizing too. If you look at external res the gross is about 50 something billion dollars but the net is over 30 something billion dollars. When investors sees they cannot give them confidence that Nigeria is stable and they would love to come and invest

1:03:28 in Nigeria. At NIPC we have put a structure in place. Investors complain moving from one office to the other. What we did was to create onetop investment center in which currently we have about 16 different agencies to streamline a bottleneck within the investment system for us to be able to convince them that look we'll make life easy for you and then you come and invest in Nigeria and commence your business within certain hours or thank you. Thank you for that and that is very important

1:04:15 information because what you touched on is the fact that there was some degree of regulatory reform which then facilitated investor confidence. Right. But what I also would like to know is to ask Ambassador Richard Nixon, is Grenada contemplating doing an a single investment gateway window similar to what our colleagues at NIPC have done? And if not, uh, would that be of interest? Maybe we can even scale it from just Grenada to probably the entire region. What do you think? I think you're reading my notes. Before I answer that question, I I would like to talk about some of the uh policy things that we need to put in place to make investments flow easier

1:05:03 and trustworthy. You need to be transparent. you need to be uh uh uh dependable like if on the incentives regime you cannot say okay well I'm building a hotel so I get x amount of incentives you're building the same hotel and you get something different that creates conflict that needs to stop so one of the things that we're doing at GDC is to level the playing field for everyone based on the the market the location you're going to whether it's a rural development location or in the the main city and the standard set of incentives would apply to everyone. That's important. The second is investment protection agreements between

1:05:49 various between countries to make sure that once your nationals come and invest, there's some agreements in place that protect your investment. That's very important as well. The other is double taxation treaties. A lot of people are worried about optimizing their tax exposures. So we need to have these double taxation agreements in place that would address the concerns from a tax basis. Right? So I think those are some of the institutional things and policy things that need to be put in place. Now two years ago the governor of Grenada commissioned uh a committee. it's called a technical working group to look at all the investment incentives across the board and make recommendations to the government. Uh I was chairing that

1:06:36 committee. So we had folks from all different sectors from customs, immigration, everybody in there. And what we came up with it we we we have to start documenting and tracking our investment leads. So the propo one of the proposals we have you you you you get approved by cabinet for a certain group of incentives we issue a code number that code number goes into a database a selective database so every customs officer if I'm bringing in a container of widgets in they can go in with my code numbers oh you're already approved so they don't have to go around and chase three or four different agencies

1:07:22 and it may take two weeks or somebody's sick, somebody's not in, it's right there in front of you. So, you can get your stuff done right aways. So, we save a lot of time and a lot of effort. And the same goes for local suppliers. You may need something urgently and you have the incentives. You put in that code and they say, "Oh, you already have this approved." And then there are mechanisms mechanisms in the background so that local supply gets its VAT and taxes back or whatever uh concessions you get. So there are things that can make life a lot easier. Let me go back to my friend Dr. Jules again. I think throughout the OECS because I I think the OECS have a good working relationship together because we have

1:08:09 the same currency uh same economic space free movement of people. It makes it a lot easier. We should set up a database of opportunities that come in so it could be tracked. It could be measurable because once you start dealing with with different countries and they look at your your trade and partners and trade and deficits and balance of payments these things are very very important very very important and it tells you how much more support you will get if the balance of trade is good and we'd like to work as a region because as I said individually we're too small we we're too small so let's work as a region which would make our impact much more effective and we focus on niche markets

1:08:55 based on our individual strengths. >> Thank you, ambassador. So, I think you've answered the last question already, so I'll spare you on this round. All right. However, it leaves the other two gentlemen with me to answer this tough one. So if you were to be imaginative, could you identify one key policy initiative that could help create a more integrated AfroCaribbean economic corridor? You want to go? You sure? Okay, go ahead. I've said it before during my intro and when I was addressing the issue, I

1:09:41 provide solution. if you can key in into the solution I provided and we're good to go. Thank you. >> That's so usually when uh I give a question like that and a student responds to me in that manner I normally just look at them and say mm- you have to come again. So repeat for me what was the solution because we don't know if everyone in the room heard it when you said it. So I'm very keen to hear the solution >> when I address the first issue. The first question you tr I gave four points structural deficits why we are not moving anywhere. I mention the framework that's regulatory framework the finance

1:10:28 the logistics and the last one the payment system I address those issue and I provide answer except you want me to repeat it but the only sector before I run this one sector we're looking at I don't know whether you're El Monday the creative industry the passion the panel on that session we should give kudos to the Nigeria actors actresses and the musicians I think going forward Aisha I'm challenge you on this please going forward we've been having road shows

1:11:16 investment summit why can't you develop within the Caribbean and Africa. Let's come up and organize creative Nollywood, Nollywood, Nigerian musician, Caribbean musician, their own actresses and actors. Let's organize a summit for them and bring them together. Maybe we can prosper. >> Now you've answered the question because I said if you were imaginative, the first four basically fundamentals. So I love that response. So ambassador Abello the floor is yours. >> Okay. I think uh one of the fundamental thing that can spo and attract the needed investment and really support

1:12:03 them in the context of the finance that he raised. I think we should encourage our businesses and our regulators to make sure that businesses have embedded in them the issue of environmental and social governance framework. You see funding give cognizance to these issues because the people that are lending are always mindful of the fact of the environment. What is the social governance structure? So we need to have that in place. With regards to payment system, I think Afroexm has done paps and I think they are trying to replicate it in the Caribbean. But the good thing especially with Nigeria and most of African countries we are dollar based economy

1:12:50 Caribbeans are dollar based economy. So I don't think payment system fundamentally will disrupt uh our terms of trade because we are all dollar dominated economies. So that can help and the issue of uh just to raise the issue of the logistics he said you see shipping is very expensive uh you can't steam away or steam in without cargo so it's to begin the cargo aggregation that's why I said if you have a trans shshipment centers h don't go to America go to Caribbean dump the good they aggregate it it will go to America from America aggregate the one that will come

1:13:36 to Africa with that then you begin to build capacity. You can start with one ship calling every month and then when the traffic is there you begin to see that ah weekly ships are calling because already you are aggregating and consolidating uh uh your cargo into it and most fundamentally with regard now to policy at our policy framework and thinking we should think medium to long term because these investments are not shortterm they are not coming to money market to do 30 days, 90 days transaction. Somebody's coming to do an investment maybe in mining that may take decades. So you need an outlook that have a long-term view with that and in

1:14:22 supporting that that's why I said government should come very deliberate. There should be instrument where there are impairment or losses. uh instrument can either uh provide indemnity or losses for those investment because those are the things that will give the confidence not only to the investor but also to the financiers of the investment. So gentlemen you've answered my last question. The first response was creating a regional gateway for all of the potential investment opportunities. The second being the creation of a joint collaboration in the cultural and

1:15:07 creative sector across the Caribbean and Africa. And the third being the integration of trade and environment policies in terms of supporting businesses in the development of their business plan to crowd in investment. And I think you've done such an excellent job. May they please get a round of applause. And with that we conclude our panel. So I just wish to thank you all for your attention. And I think um my moderator, my general moderator is going to invite Miss Aisha Maya up to take a photo with us. I think Dr. Jules, you should join us. You've been mentioned so many times. Uh I could not I would be a pleasure to have you. If I may be before we do the photo op, I think you've summed this up

1:15:53 very well. So what do we do about this? I would like to propose that amongst ourselves and we form a a a group have a strategic planning session. Let's not leave this here. Let's come up with a plan, some strategic method where we come up with some funding objectives. You say, "Okay, here's a plan. We need x amount of dollars and here are the industries we want to target and let's start working from there. Let's not leave this here. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. Please a round of applause for them for that very insightful panel session. We're just going to have a quick photo.

1:16:48 While the photograph is going on, the photograph session is going on, we're going to be having a very important segment, the signing ceremony. We'd want to kindly ask that Miss Aisha stay back with us. and Ambassador Nixon. This is an MOU between Grenada Investment Development Corporation and

1:17:34 All right. Before I go on, I would want to call up Miss Lavina Coyote if she's present. Miss Lavina Kyode, you can put your hands together for her as she comes up. Ladies and gentlemen, when we came here on Monday, one of the things that I said on Wednesday more like is that this is not a talk shop. This summit is about solutions.

1:18:21 I am honored, proud, and happy to say that though it may not be a marriage as Ambassador Richard has so suggested, today at least there will be an engagement. Today, Nigeria and Grenada engage by signing an MOU between the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission and the Grenada Investment Development Commission. This is the first step towards the agreement, the investment promotion protection agreement that ensures that

1:19:07 businesses can trade between Nigeria and Grenada, between Africa and the Caribbean properly protected. One voice, one vision. The memorandum of understanding being signed today establishes a practical and strategic framework for cooperation across several key areas. Both parties commit to mutual investments promotion and business facilitation, the exchange of technical expertise and knowledge, collaborative training and capacity building programs, the organization of

1:19:53 business missions and investment delegations, and a sharing of market intelligence, trade policies and investment opportunities. Together, these commitments are designed to open new corridors of commerce and create tangible opportunities for businesses and investors on both sides. Ladies and gentlemen, agreements such as this one do not happen by chance. They are a product of vision, dedication, and the unwavering belief that collaboration

1:20:40 between nations yield far greater results than any one country can yield alone. We commend the leadership of both institutions for their foresight in pursuing this partnership. Ladies and gentlemen, I dare say you are not just attending a landmark summit. You are also witnessing history unfold.

1:21:26 And on the sands of time, your name is written on it as well because you get to witness this. Now there's an old story told in different forms across different cultures of two distant communities separated by water who could not understand each other not through language but through rhythm. When one drum spoke the other answered and through oceans stood before them the beat remained the same. Today that story lives on because what you are about to experience is not just a performance. It's conversation. It's connection. It's brotherhood. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, get ready to feel the heartbeat of unity. Taking us further for an electric performance, the

1:22:13 Brotherhood Drummers. A round of applause for them, please.

1:23:52 How about this?

1:25:06 Hey, hey hey. Heat. Heat. Heat.

1:26:08 Heat. Heat. N. about hey

1:27:10 Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat.

1:28:22 Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N.

1:29:26 Hey. Yeah. ladies and gentlemen, the Brotherhood Drummers of St. Kit Sandas. Another round of applause, please. Intra-African trade is one of the most discussed ambitions in the development

1:30:12 conversation and one of the most consistently underdelivered. Part of the reason is structural. African traders doing business with each other have historically had to route their payments through New York, London or Paris, paying fees in hard currencies, losing days to settlement delays and surrendering control over financial data to external systems. It is a colonial legacy embedded in the plumbing of commerce. Our next speaker is building the infrastructure to replace it. Mr. Michael Agbaludu III is the CEO of the Panaffrican payment and settlement system PAPs, the continentwide financial market infrastructure launched by the African

1:31:00 Union in January 2022 to enable instant realtime crossborder payments across Africa in local currencies. Since its launch, PAPS has expanded to connect 17 countries, 15 central banks, more than 150 commercial banks, and approximately 500 million bank accounts on single platform that can settle a payment in under 120 seconds. In 2025, PAPS launched PAPS card, the continent's first panaffrican card scheme and the PAPS African currency marketplace, enabling direct exchange of African currencies without the need for hard

1:31:45 currency intermediaries. He is an electrical and and electronic engineer, a fellow of the international academy of cards and payments and an MBA graduate of the Lagos Business School. His career has taken him through UBA, Afrey Bank, Echo Bank and Interswitch where he served as divisional CEO of Interswitch Financial Inclusion Services before his appointment as CEO of Verve International where he helped make Africa's most successful card scheme genuinely pan-African. He came to paps as the culmination of a career spent connecting people to financial systems that serve them. He

1:32:31 has said simply, "Once everyone is fully on board, you will see how payments can accelerate trade, improve economic activity, and make Africa more prosperous." Ladies and gentlemen, please help me make welcome Mr. Michael Ugbaloo III. Good afternoon, distinguished ladies and gentlemen.

1:33:17 Let me start by really expressing my thanks and appreciation to Aquarium C uh capital for this uh consult sorry for this uh opportunity to gather to discuss to meet each other. You know they say where I come from that blood is thicker than water. So to our brothers and sisters from the Caribbean, I say welcome and I hope you enjoy being here on the motherland. Um I would love to stand on already established uh protocols and I'll quickly go into my thoughts and my

1:34:02 reflections. For centuries, the Atlantic was a bridge of extraction. Today, we are re-engineering it into a corridor of economic sovereignty and prosperity. We are no longer waiting for the world's permission to trade with ourselves. Through paps, we are finally speaking the same financial language, proving that while our currencies are different, our destinies are tied. So once again, welcome to our brothers and sisters. Let me begin by expressing my sincere appreciation to the organizers of the summit for bringing together Africa and the Caribbean around a shared ambition.

1:34:51 an ambition not just to collaborate but to trade, invest and to grow together. It moves it moves on infrastructure when businesses can exchange value efficiently. It moves when payments are simple, reliable, and predictable. It accelerates when the system supporting it are designed for the realities of our market. For a long time, we've been trying to make trade work between our our peoples on an infrastructure that was not designed for us. So today, and now we take our destinies into our own hands. So we build for ourselves, we control our

1:35:38 infrastructure and we make ourselves trade. Today, intra- Africa trade still represents less than 20% of total African trade. And for the Caribbean, intra regional trade also remains limited. This is not due to a lack of opportunity, but due to structural

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