Harvests from Nigeria's World Economic Summit in New York, by Garba Shehu

On Thursday last week, the Nigeria International Economic Partnership Forum was held in Manhattan, New York, in the midst of the most important international event of the year: the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The Forum was extremely popular, attracting some 500 guests and delegates – almost double the expected number. Although it created a somewhat chaotic atmosphere at times, the Forum was a resounding success: a clear indication of investor confidence in Nigeria.

Nigeria is Africa's largest economy and seeks to grow its GDP to $965 billion, or nearly $1 trillion by 2027.

Under President Muhammadu Buhari, the nation has made significant progress in building highways, bridges, railways, electricity, electrification and adding capacity to airports and upgrading them .

As the President spoke, rendering his government's determination to open up more and more sectors of the economy to the private sector, one particular participant stunned, not a few, when he announced that he manages pension funds worth $1.3 trillion, money well in excess of Nigeria's current GDP, five times that.

First, more than $1 billion in deals benefiting Nigeria and its partners were signed at the Forum, including a $1.3 billion investment from Sun Africa for a new energy project solar; $70 million reserved by Adryada and Noblesse Green Energy for a new biodiversity project; support for the strategic financing of a new refinery in the Niger Delta announced by Honeywell UOP; and a major philanthropic investment in data for Nigerian schools announced by Airtel Africa that would connect 100 schools to the internet each year for five consecutive years.

A highlight of the event was the Presidential Luncheon, which saw President Buhari's guest of honor joined by CEOs and senior executives from some of the largest and most important American and African corporations, including GE, Chevron, Honeywell, Bell Flight, Sun Africa, McGraw Hill, American Tower and many more.

The full guest list included American Tower Corporation, Aveva, Big Sun Holdings, Citi, CrossBoundry Group, Cure Violence Global, Entrust, Educational Testing Service, ExxonMobil, GE Healthcare, Gilead Sciences and Hello Tractor.

Also present were Google, McLarty Associates, Medici Land Governance, NBA, Odum Capital, Oracle, Pearson, Rendeavour, Roche, Seed Global Health, Standard Bank, TIAA/Nuveen, UBA America, AfDB, African EXIM Bank and its American equivalent, Export Import Bank of United States, led by Reta Jo Lewis, the first African American to head the organization, and the Islamic Development Bank, IDB, based in Jeddah.

We also had effective participation, the World Food Program (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agriculture (IFAD) and the NEPAD agency for Africa.

Of course, no one could have ignored the global presence and effective participation of the Corporate Council of Africa whose current president, Florie Liser, addressed the meeting, saying that the organi...