In July 2007, I attended the second session of the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Thailand. It was my first real encounter with Bangkok, and I remember the city for its contradictions: the squalor and the splendour, the disorder and the beauty, the old pressed against the new. It was a city I could not easily forget.
Nearly two decades later, Bangkok is back in my mind for a very different reason.
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Next week, Nigeria’s economic czars will travel to Bangkok. Dr. Taiwo Oyedele, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, will board an aircraft, carrying with him a pipe of promise, packaged in a polished presentation. Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, will join him, making the case to investors at the 2026 World Bank/International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings that Nigeria remains a country of immense possibility. They will pitch Nigeria as a place where capital can come, grow and make money.
To demonstrate its determination, the Federal Ministry of Finance has put up a colourful, animated landing page on its website, complete with a countdown clock, outlining its plans and priorities for the Bangkok mission. The government says it will present 23 transactions with a total capital requirement of $42.7 billion across transport, energy and gas, agriculture, industry, housing and urban services at the meetings.
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There is nothing unusual about a government courting investors. In fact, there is evidence that Nigeria is attracting capital. The IMF says Nigeria’s financial account recorded a net inflow of about $5.9 billion in 2025, mainly from portfolio investment. Net foreign direct investment improved to about $2.8 billion, still less than one per cent of GDP.
The IMF has also pointed to the importance of a credible macroeconomic and foreign-exchange framework, predictable regulation, reliable infrastructure and security in creating conditions for stronger foreign direct investment. These are not issues that a polished presentation can resolve. They require evidence of progress that investors can see, assess and trust.
Yes, Nigeria can attract money without attracting enough long-term investors. Portfolio capital can move relatively quickly when yields, exchange rates and market conditions change. But a factory, railway, power plant, logistics network or industrial facility cannot be moved so easily. These are precisely the kinds of investments Nigeria says it wants to attract in Bangkok.
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But there is an oddness to these journeys that is difficult to ignore. Nigeria is forever travelling in search of capital. London. New York. Washington. France. Now Bangkok.
We do not yet know how much investment will come from President Bola Tinubu’s recent meetings with investors in France. That uncertainty matters, especially at a time when investors are weighing Nigeria’s opportunities against the risks that shadow their decisions.
And that raises a question Nigeria should be asking itself before another delegation boards another aircraft. If the opportunity is as compelling as we say it is, why does Nigeria so often have to go abroad to make the case?
This question is more revealing than any roadshow presentation. It forces the government to consider what is on investors’ minds, rather than simply what Nigeria wants to offer them.
Nigeria does not need another sales pitch. It needs to convince investors that the risks of doing business in the country can be identified, understood and, most importantly, reduced.
Those risks operate at three levels: the country, the project and the cost of making it function.
At the country level, the investor wants to know: Can I get my money out? Can I rely on the rules? Can I enforce my rights? Are the courts swift, or does justice drift?
At the project level, the questions are: Can I price the risk? Can the project generate predictable cash flows?
Can the infrastructure support it?
These questions determine whether an opportunity is worth the investment. The problem is that investors are pricing both Nigeria and the projects on offer. A brilliant railway project can still be unattractive if investors believe the surrounding regulatory, currency, political or payment risks will overwhelm its economics. A project’s promise cannot be separated from the environment in which it must operate.
Then there is the cost of making the investment function. Consider a hypothetical investor interested in building a world-class cancer hospital in Nigeria. The investment could serve Nigerians and, by extension, patients from other African countries. But the investor does not simply calculate the cost of buying land, constructing the hospital and installing medical equipment. The investor must calculate the cost of making the hospital function.
What will it cost to secure a reliable electricity supply? How predictable is the process of importing specialised medical equipment through Apapa Wharf? Will port clearance and other procedures work efficiently, or will delays increase costs? Can the hospital depend on reliable internet connectivity? What additional expenses will be required to protect its staff, patients and equipment?
Every private workaround for unreliable infrastructure, inefficient processes or inadequate security adds to the cost of doing business.
This is why Nigeria’s infrastructure problem is not merely a development problem. It is an investment-pricing problem.
That is what Oyedele and Oduwole should prioritise. The more urgent task is to make those transactions investable through better preparation, credible guarantees, predictable regulation, appropriate local-currency financing, stronger project sponsors, transparent procurement and mechanisms that make risk measurable and, where possible, transferable.
A roadshow can introduce projects to investors and generate interest. It cannot, by itself, fix the conditions that determine whether those investors commit their money. That requires coordinated action across government, credible institutions and a willingness to address the practical constraints that make doing business in Nigeria expensive and uncertain.
At the end of the day, Nigeria does not need to become better at telling investors that the country is an opportunity. It needs to become better at making that opportunity impossible to ignore.
Adeola Akinremi is a public policy advisor, strategic communications expert, and the founder and CEO of Hintells, an AI-powered intelligence platform serving businesses and diplomatic missions in Washington, DC. He has extensive multilateral experience advising on governance, economic and policy reforms across global markets and can be reached at: [email protected]
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