President Bola Tinubu, speaking at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, called for urgent reform of the global financial architecture to support Africa’s industrialisation, investment growth and economic transformation.
President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday led Nigeria’s government, diplomatic and business delegation to the Africa Forward Summit at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi, where he called for urgent reform of the global financial architecture to support Africa’s economic growth and industrialisation.
The Africa-France summit, co-hosted by President Emmanuel Macron of France and President William Ruto of Kenya, attracted leaders and senior officials from more than 30 countries across Africa.
Opening remarks at the summit were delivered by President William Ruto, President Emmanuel Macron, Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, Chairman of the African Union Commission.
On the sidelines of the summit, President Bola Tinubu held a bilateral meeting with Michael Randrianirina of Madagascar.
He also met with Patrice Motsepe, President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), where Nigeria expressed readiness to host the 2026 CAF Awards.
At the summit, the French government advocated restructuring global economic and political relations based on fairness and equality, while African leaders demanded improved access to credit for investment and economic expansion.
President Tinubu highlighted Nigeria’s blue economy potential as a critical pillar for Africa’s development, noting that insecurity and uncertainty had previously limited growth in the sector.
“Today, I make an explicit commitment: Nigeria will intensify regional coordination by offering our Deep Blue Project’s maritime intelligence infrastructure as a shared data hub for willing Gulf of Guinea states. Interoperable systems, harmonised laws, and seamless joint enforcement must become the daily reality, not an aspiration on paper.
“Let no one misunderstand: maritime sovereignty does not repel investment – it attracts it. Secure sea lanes, predictable regulation, and functional courts are the preconditions that unlock private capital. Governance has de-risked Nigeria’s maritime proposition. We now invite partners to build on these gains as we advance climate-aligned port modernisation and the digital transformation of our maritime sector.
“As we endorse the Nairobi Declaration, Nigeria affirms that maritime sovereignty and ocean governance are the non-negotiable foundations of Africa’s Blue Economy transformation. We will continue to earn that sovereignty – through institutions, through assets, through law, and through iron-clad regional solidarity that turns our waters from a theatre of risk into a story of shared resilience.
“The oceans have no duplicate as a common heritage of mankind. For Africa, moving from sea blindness to ocean sovereignty is not a choice – it is a generational duty. Nigeria is ready, and we invite all present to join us in that duty,” the President stated.
Speaking on the international financial system, President Bola Tinubu argued that the current global financial structure continues to disadvantage African economies.
“Last September, from the podium of the United Nations General Assembly, Nigeria warned that the international system must reform or risk irrelevance. We spoke not only of the Security Council but of the financial and trade structures that quietly de-industrialise our nations. The evidence is before us. Despite decades of independence, Africa’s share of global manufacturing value added remains below 2 per cent.
“We export raw minerals, crude oil, and agricultural commodities, and we import processed goods at a premium. This pattern is not an accident. It is the product of a global financial architecture that starves our industries of affordable capital, tolerates massive illicit financial flows, and imposes policy constraints that our competitors themselves never observed when they built their own industrial bases.
“Nigeria does not come to this discussion as a supplicant. We come as a nation that has taken painful, homegrown decisions to put our house in order – removing fuel subsidies, unifying our exchange rate, recapitalising our banking system with over US$3.4 billion, and exiting the FATF grey list. These reforms were sovereign choices, not external conditions. They have delivered a declining debt-to-GDP ratio, now projected at 32.3 per cent in 2026, stronger external reserves of $45.5 billion, and a return of investor confidence. But, Excellencies, even a reforming nation like Nigeria is being forced to de-industrialise by a financial system that is stacked against us,” he said.
The President disclosed that Nigeria would spend approximately $11.6 billion on debt servicing in 2026, representing nearly half of the country’s projected revenue.
“Every single dollar that leaves our treasury to pay punitive interest rates is a dollar that did not go into our steel sector, our textile mills, our agro-processing plants, or our digital industries. It is a dollar that did not train a young Nigerian engineer or provide affordable power for our factories. Our industrial base is being starved of the blood it needs – long-term, affordable finance – while creditors and rating agencies treat African sovereigns as permanent high-risk borrowers, regardless of our fiscal performance.
“So, I ask this gathering: how can an African manufacturer compete with a competitor in Europe, Asia, or North America when the cost of borrowing in our nations is five to ten times higher? How can we build cross-border industrial value chains under the African Continental Free Trade Area when our infrastructure projects face a financing gap deepened by the very institutions meant to bridge it? The answer is plain: we cannot. The international financial architecture, as currently constituted, is an instrument of industrial disarmament for Africa.
“Nigeria is not asking for charity. We are demanding a financial system that intentionally enables Africa to industrialise – to process its own minerals, refine its own crude oil, manufacture its own pharmaceuticals, and compete fairly in global markets. We will continue to borrow responsibly, but we insist that our creditworthiness be measured by our economic fundamentals and our industrial potential, not by outdated stereotypes,” he stated.
On migration and security, President Tinubu stressed the need for coordinated global policies and stronger development investments.
“First, cooperation must address root causes in countries of origin. People who have jobs, security, and hope at home do not typically risk their lives in the back of a smuggler’s truck. That is why Nigeria has embedded migration management within our broader economic transformation agenda – removing fuel subsidies to invest in infrastructure, recapitalising banks to fund enterprise, and modernising agriculture to create rural livelihoods, among other initiatives.
“But we cannot do it alone. International partners must move beyond rhetoric and match words with investments that make staying at home a genuine choice – investments in climate adaptation, energy access, digital skills, and the productive sectors that employ young people. As we intensify the implementation of these domestic measures, I therefore call on our development partners to ring-fence a portion of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for programmes that demonstrably reduce the desperation that fuels irregular migration,” he said.
The President further called on African nations to strengthen cooperation on migration governance and continental security.
“The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was a start, but it remains non-binding and underfunded. Nigeria supports the African Union’s Migration Policy Framework and the Khartoum Process, but we need a more coherent link between these regional efforts and global institutions,” he added.
President Bola Tinubu was accompanied to the summit by several ministers and senior government officials, including Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Wale Edun, Senator Abubakar Kyari, Adegboyega Oyetola, Bosun Tijani and others.
Business leaders at the summit included Aliko Dangote, Abdulsamad Rabiu, Tony Elumelu and Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede.
The summit also featured bilateral meetings, university plenaries and strategic discussions on artificial intelligence, digitalisation, agro-industry, healthcare, climate change, trade, investment, entrepreneurship and Africa’s industrialisation agenda under the African Continental Free Trade Area framework.
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