Nigeria’s capital challenge is finding bankable opportunities

Nigeria does not lack capital, but rather a sufficient volume of investable, bankable opportunities capable of attracting and absorbing available funds, experts at the 2026 Chief Executive Officer Forum of the UN Global Compact Network Nigeria have stated.

The closed-door forum, held in Lagos under the theme “Financing a Dignified Future: Aligning Capital, Policy and Business Action,” brought together chief executives, policymakers, financiers, and development partners to examine how capital, policy, and enterprise can drive economic productivity.

In her opening address, the CEO and Executive Director of UN Global Compact Network Nigeria, Naomi Nwokolo, urged business leaders to shift focus from longstanding constraints toward immediate, actionable solutions that foster long-term competitiveness, living wages, and sustainable growth.

Contributing to the dialogue, the Director-General of the Northwest Governors Forum, Maryam Musa Yahaya, stressed that state governments must actively engage investors to resolve specific structural bottlenecks, including power, regulatory friction, and security concerns.

Highlighting a practical model, Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, outlined his administration’s 10-year development plan aimed at bolstering policy predictability, improving geophysical data, and boosting internally generated revenue from N90m to roughly N45bn monthly.

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Addressing financial access, the Deputy Managing Director of First Bank of Nigeria, Ini Ebong, stated that financial inclusion must be treated as critical infrastructure rather than corporate social responsibility, noting that the broader constraint remains the capacity of small businesses to become financeable through proper record-keeping and corporate governance.

On institutional capital deployment, the Group Chief Operating Officer of Custodian Investment, Adeniyi Falade, revealed that out of the pension industry’s N32tn asset pool, less than three per cent is allocated to infrastructure due to a scarcity of properly structured, bankable projects.

Similarly, the Managing Director of Sahara Power Group, Anthony Youdeowei, noted that addressing energy deficits requires substantial capital for distribution infrastructure alongside clear tariff frameworks to ensure investor returns.

Providing an international trade perspective, the Deputy High Commissioner of Canada to Nigeria, Carlos Rojas-Arbulú, stated that while bilateral merchandise trade between both nations has surpassed $3bn, global capital remains highly selective, prioritising transparent data and bankable feasibility studies over general market potential.