Capital Has No Passport, Is Not Patriotic, Has To Be Attracted – Verheijen

Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Energy, Olu Verheijen, has urged African leaders to prioritize policies that would attract investors.

Naijaonpoint reports that Verheijen said capital is not African or foreign, but it is rational, and Africa must compete for it.

She stated this while speaking at the 2025 Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

In a statement on Wednesday from her office’s Team Lead, Communications, Senan Murray, Tinubu’s Energy Adviser emphasized the need for African leaders to create an ease of doing business environment to attract foreign investments.

“Let’s be clear: capital has no passport. Sentimental appeals to African capital are a distraction. Capital is opportunistic, not patriotic. It flows where risk-adjusted returns are competitive,” she said.

She stated that multi-billion-dollar deepwater and LNG projects are global capital territory, and Africa must partner smartly, not from dependency, but from aligned strategic interest.

Citing the fact that Africa attracted $340 billion in upstream capital between 2011 and 2015, a figure expected to drop to less than $130 billion by 2026–2030, she said, “That’s not a funding winter. That’s a structural decimation.”

According to Verheijen, capital is increasingly going to projects with strong economics, low carbon intensity, and predictable governance, the factors attracting billions of dollars in new investment to the Permian Basin, Guyana, and Brazil.

“If Africa wants a larger slice of the $500 billion in global upstream spend annually“, she argued, “it must offer the same clarity and competitiveness.”

She noted that Nigeria has been able to prove that this approach works. In under a year, Nigeria unlocked over $8 billion in deepwater and gas Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) through decisive presidential action, focused on improved fiscal terms, streamlined contracting timelines, greater clarity to local content rules, and power sector reforms enabling gas-to-power commercial viability.

Verheijen urged African investors, DFIs, banks, pension funds, and sovereigns to be strategic in focus and to strive to fill the vacuum left by IOCs, not just with funding, but with fit-for-purpose instruments and risk-sharing structures.

“Our sweet spot is onshore, shelf, and domestic gas. That’s where African players must dominate, because we understand the terrain, the risk, and the reward,” she stated.

Concluding, she urged, “We must move beyond appeals for support. Africa must become an investment destination by design, anchored in policy clarity, commercial logic, and strategic intent. When we get that right, capital won’t hesitate; it will pursue us. The future will not be given to Africa. It must be built, deliberately, unapologetically, and on our terms.”