Lagos, Nigeria — The 2025 Africa Blue Economy Summit opened today in Lagos with a powerful call for innovation, investment, and sustainability across the continent’s vast ocean and water resources. The event brought together prominent leaders from government, business, and international organizations, reinforcing Africa’s growing influence in the global blue economy.
Among the dignitaries in attendance were Mrs. Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice President for Intra-African Trade and Export Development at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank); His Excellency Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Governor of Lagos State; Mr. Didier Drogba, President of the Didier Drogba Foundation and Co-Founder of E1 Team Drogba – Global Africa; Mr. Alejandro Agag, Co-Founder and Chairman of the E1 Series; and Mr. Simon T. Tiemtore, Chairman and Founder of Vista Group Holding.
Together, they outlined a shared vision for leveraging Africa’s waterways and coastal assets as engines for economic diversification, environmental resilience, and job creation.
Afreximbank’s Vision for Sustainable Growth
In her keynote remarks, Mrs. Kanayo Awani underscored the transformative potential of Africa’s maritime resources, describing them as “more than heritage — they are engines for jobs, innovation, and resilience.”
She emphasized that Africa’s creativity and entrepreneurial drive, when matched with the right investment and strategic direction, can unlock immense value across the continent’s blue economy — spanning shipping, coastal tourism, fisheries, renewable energy, and marine biotechnology.
“When African creativity and enterprise are matched with capital in the right direction, the continent can transform its natural wealth into global strength,” Awani said.
Through Afreximbank’s Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) initiative, she added, the Bank is investing in Africa’s creative and cultural industries, affirming the power of innovation, culture, and sustainable enterprise to drive inclusive growth and social progress.
Lagos Hosts Africa’s First All-Electric Powerboat Race
The Summit also marked the commencement of the E1 World Championship in Lagos, the world’s first all-electric powerboating series to debut on African waters. The E1 Series, co-founded by Alejandro Agag and Rodi Basso, aims to promote clean mobility on water while inspiring global action toward blue carbon sustainability, marine conservation, and green innovation.
This milestone event positions Lagos — and by extension Nigeria — as a continental leader in ocean sustainability, coastal resilience, and waste-to-value innovation. It also aligns with the state’s broader climate adaptation agenda, which emphasizes investment in renewable energy, green jobs, and circular economy initiatives.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu hailed the E1 Championship as a bold statement of Lagos’ ambition to become a global hub for sustainable maritime innovation, highlighting its potential to attract investment, tourism, and international partnerships.
Africa’s New Economic Frontier: The Blue Economy
Experts define the blue economy as the sustainable use of ocean and water resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and environmental health. For Africa, this sector holds an estimated value of over $400 billion annually, with untapped opportunities in shipping, aquaculture, offshore energy, and biotechnology.
The Lagos summit served as a platform to strengthen collaboration among governments, development banks, and private investors to scale up blue economy projects across the continent. Stakeholders discussed frameworks for financing innovation, fostering marine-based startups, and addressing environmental challenges such as pollution, overfishing, and coastal erosion.
Mr. Didier Drogba, who co-founded E1 Team Drogba – Global Africa, spoke passionately about using sports and innovation as tools for empowerment, noting that the initiative represents “Africa’s unity, talent, and sustainability in motion.”
Positioning Africa as a Global Leader in Ocean Innovation
The 2025 Africa Blue Economy Summit not only celebrates Africa’s natural endowments but also underscores a strategic shift — from resource dependency to knowledge-based, innovation-driven growth.
With Afreximbank’s commitment to financing transformative sectors, the event reaffirmed Africa’s readiness to harness its coastal and ocean assets as drivers of sustainable development, global competitiveness, and shared prosperity.
As Mrs. Awani noted, the future of Africa’s blue economy depends on visionary collaboration: between governments that set enabling policies, institutions that provide financing, and entrepreneurs who bring creativity and technology to the table.
A New Tide for Africa’s Growth
The launch of the E1 Championship in Lagos — the first of its kind on the continent — symbolizes a new era for Africa: one that blends sustainability, sport, technology, and finance to turn its waterways into engines of growth.
By anchoring the 2025 Africa Blue Economy Summit in Lagos, Afreximbank and its partners have placed Nigeria at the heart of a continental movement that seeks to redefine how Africa interacts with its natural capital — not as raw resource exporters, but as innovators shaping a sustainable global future.
