President Julius Maada Bio and billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in LagosPresident Julius Maada Bio visited the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos on Wednesday, touring the sprawling Lekki Free Zone complex with billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote as part of a drive to mobilise private-sector investment ahead of the West Africa Integration and Investment Summit (WAIIS).
The summit will be held in Freetown at the Julius Maada Bio International Conference Centre (JMBICC) in Lungi, November 17-18, 2026. WAIIS, convened under the mandate of ECOWAS by President Bio to mark the organisation’s 50th anniversary, will be anchored on the theme “powering regional integration through energy trade, strategic minerals, agribusiness and digital transformation”.
The four interdependent pillars around which organisers have structured discussions and potential deals are: Power to Grow (regional energy trade and sustainable infrastructure); Minerals to Industry (strategic development of critical minerals and natural resources); Food at Scale (scaling agribusiness and building food system resilience across West Africa); and Connect to Compete (accelerating digital transformation, cross-border connectivity, and digital sovereignty).
The Dangote refinery, owned by the Dangote Group and founded by Aliko Dangote, exemplifies the region’s best private-sector capacity. The refinery, which began operations in early 2024 as the world’s largest single-train oil refinery, has reshaped Nigeria’s energy landscape, enabling it to shift from a longtime fuel importer to a self-sufficient producer and emerging exporter.
The President’s participation underscores the summit’s focus on connecting large industrial projects to regional investment opportunities and building cross-border partnerships that use private-sector infrastructure to support West Africa’s drive for economic integration.****
