Abuja — Vice President Kashim Shettima has criticized Africa’s continued reliance on foreign aid and loans, calling for a shift toward “strategic capitalism” driven by blended finance, patient capital, and private enterprise to secure the continent’s future.
Shettima made the remarks on Wednesday at the Africa Social Impact Summit (ASIS) in Abuja, hosted by his office in partnership with Sterling One Foundation and United Nations Nigeria. He was represented by his Technical Adviser on Women, Youth Engagement and Impact, Hajia Hauwa Liman.
The summit, themed “Scaling Action – Driving Inclusive Growth Through Policy and Innovation,” also featured the launch of new education and women’s inclusion platforms.
According to the Vice President, national progress depends on “the clarity of judgment and the courage of conviction that defines the solution it chooses,” describing ASIS as a platform to “listen with humility, reason with honesty, and act with purpose.”
He praised ASIS for evolving over four editions into a key forum that converts “intent into execution,” highlighting the launch of the Business Coalition for Education and the Women and Financial and Economic Inclusion Platform (WIFI).
“Government alone cannot solve Africa’s development challenges,” Shettima said. “Our responsibility is to reframe development as an investment—in human capital, productive systems, climate resilience, infrastructure, and inclusive markets.”
Rejecting aid dependency, he stated: “The future of this continent will not be financed by aid and loans. It will be financed by patient capital, catalytic capital, blended finance, and private enterprise deployed at scale and guided by impact.”
He described impact investing as a form of “strategic capitalism” capable of building strong institutions, skilled workforces, and sustainable ecosystems, while outlining reforms under President Bola Tinubu in education, health, financial inclusion, and digital infrastructure.
“We are building national resource architectures not to impress donors, but to serve citizens,” he said, urging collaboration among government, the private sector, civil society, and young people. “Development is not done to people; it is done with them.”
Shettima warned against policy fragmentation and said history would judge leaders by “the systems we built and the institutions we strengthened.”
With just five years to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) deadline, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, in a virtual address, warned that global progress has “faltered and, in many cases, regressed.”
She highlighted rising debt burdens, declining investment, and climate impacts disproportionately affecting vulnerable countries, noting that “three billion people live in countries that spend more on debt interest than on health and education.”
Mohammed outlined three urgent priorities: scaling up sustainable development finance, addressing climate and environmental debt, and reforming the international financial architecture to better serve vulnerable nations.
She called for renewed global solidarity to unlock finance, technology, and partnerships for transformative change.
Also speaking, CEO of Sterling One Foundation, Olapeju Ibekwe, urged stakeholders to move from ideas to execution, stressing ASIS’s role in uniting government, private capital, and social innovators to tackle Africa’s challenges.
She highlighted achievements in blended finance across education, health, climate resilience, and humanitarian response, noting expanded access to services for women, youth, and underserved communities.
The summit marked what she described as a “new chapter” with the launch of the Business Coalition for Innovation and the Women and Financial and Economic Inclusion Platform (WIFI), an African Union initiative debuting in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) drew attention to Nigeria’s growing internal displacement crisis caused by conflict, insurgency, flooding, and terrorism.
“What people want are jobs and self-reliance,” he said. “Handouts are unsustainable.”
The summit concluded with renewed calls for inclusive, investment-driven development to close the gap between promise and performance across Africa.
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