The Nigeria Public-Private Partnership Summit 2025, held in Abuja, provided a high-level platform for dialogue, dealmaking, and policy commitments as government officials, private investors, and global development partners converged to chart a new path for infrastructure financing.
From heavyweight private investors and industrial giants to global financiers and development institutions, Abuja became a magnet for dealmakers last month as the Nigeria Public-Private Partnership Summit 2025 took centre stage. Held in the heart of the Federal Capital Territory, the high-stakes summit brought together capital and policy in a powerful mix, serving as both a deal room and an idea exchange where boardroom ambition met bureaucratic resolve.
With Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit ballooning, the mission was clear: mobilise private capital through strategic partnerships to deliver critical assets, roads, power, ports, and digital systems. Public funds alone are no longer enough, and the resounding message from the summit was that only bold, reform-driven collaborations can unlock the scale of investment needed to power Nigeria’s next phase of development.
This resolve became clearly evident when the ICRC Director-General, Jobson Ewalefoh, announced to attendees, including President Bola Tinubu, that the country’s infrastructure deficit would require a staggering $2.3 tn to bridge, adding that the scale of Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit offers one of the most compelling investment opportunities on the continent.
“Nigeria is open for business and, more importantly, ready for partnership. With over 200 million people, a growing middle class, rich natural endowments, and an enormous infrastructure gap estimated at over $2.3tn, the case for PPPs in Nigeria is not only compelling, it is urgent,” the ICRC boss declared.
The Abuja conference themed ‘Unlocking Nigeria’s Potential: The Role of Public-Private Partnerships in Delivering the Renewed Hope Agenda’ brought together policymakers, regulators, investors, financiers, development experts, and key stakeholders within and outside the country who engaged in critical dialogue on the future of PPPs in Nigeria’s infrastructure development landscape. It aims to co-create new frameworks, de-risk bankable projects, and strengthen our institutional alignment toward project delivery.
The ICRC DG, speaking in his opening remark, described the summit as more than just a meeting of stakeholders but “a rallying call for transformation, a platform for strategic convergence, and a bridge between national aspirations and tangible development.”
He called on private investors, both local and international, to seize emerging opportunities in Nigeria’s infrastructure sector, declaring the country “open for business and ready for partnership”.
He said the Tinubu administration had taken bold steps to position infrastructure development at the core of its Renewed Hope Agenda, leveraging PPPs as a tool for inclusive growth, innovation, and accountability.
“Under your Renewed Hope Agenda, Nigeria has witnessed a bold recalibration of public policy, prioritising infrastructure as the engine of inclusive growth. Your administration has demonstrated uncommon courage in embracing Public-Private Partnerships, not merely as a funding mechanism but as a governance model that rewards innovation, efficiency, and accountability,” he added.
He further explained that the PPP summit was designed to bring together stakeholders from the public sector, private investors, development partners, and civil society to co-create new frameworks, de-risk bankable projects, and improve institutional capacity for project delivery. Jobson also pledged the commission’s commitment to aligning regulation with facilitation and ensuring that every PPP transaction is not only legally sound but also economically viable and socially impactful.
“At the ICRC, we are aligning regulation with facilitation and compliance with collaboration. We are committed to ensuring that every PPP transaction is not just legally sound but economically viable and socially impactful,” he said.
He cited projects such as the Highway Development and Management Initiative, the MediPool medical infrastructure initiative, Ikere Gorge Dam, Borokiri Fishing Terminal, and the MEMS platform as evidence of this new PPP-driven approach.
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