By Alusine Sesay
Freetown, August 21, 2026: Sierra Leone’s President Dr. Julius Maada Bio has convened a high‑level virtual meeting with leading African business executives as preparations intensify for the West African Integration and Investment Summit (WAIIS) scheduled to take place later this year in Freetown.
The meeting brought together the CEOs of Afreximbank and the Africa Finance Corporation, as well as the Acting Vice President of the African Development Bank Group. President Bio emphasised that WAIIS is designed to be the premier platform for mobilising private capital and accelerating economic integration across West Africa.
He also expressed appreciation to prominent business leaders Mr. Tony Elumelu and Alhaji Aliko Dangote for their ongoing support to the summit.
Significance of WAIIS
The West African Integration and Investment Summit is a flagship regional initiative. It aims to:
- Mobilise private capital for strategic investments in energy, infrastructure, agribusiness, and digital transformation.
- Advance regional integration, aligning policies and investment pipelines across ECOWAS member states.
- Promote inclusive growth, with emphasis on gender equality, youth empowerment, and community participation.
- Strengthen partnerships between governments, development finance institutions, and the private sector.
The Summit builds on Sierra Leone’s 300‑Day Transformation Agenda and ECOWAS’s drive to deepen economic ties across the subregion. It will feature policy dialogues, expert group meetings, and ministerial conferences, culminating in the adoption of the Freetown Communiqué as the foundation for the ECOWAS Heads of State Summit later in 2026.
President Bio reaffirmed that WAIIS is not just a conference but a delivery platform for turning commitments into bankable projects and pipelines into industries.