The Federal Government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are working on a plan to attract $10 billion in private investment over the next five years to communities affected by displacement and insecurity across Nigeria.
The proposed Leadership Alliance for Enterprise, Acceleration and Prosperity (LEAP) will initially focus on 10 states, with the aim of using private investment, development finance and government support to create jobs, rebuild livelihoods and strengthen local economies.
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, said the Federal Government was ready to work with UNHCR, the private sector and development partners to develop the initiative and create sustainable economic opportunities for displaced people and the communities hosting them.
Bagudu spoke during a meeting with a UNHCR delegation led by its Representative in Nigeria, Arjun Jain, on the proposed LEAP initiative.
The minister said government intervention would be necessary to make investments in communities where insecurity, poor infrastructure and other risks make it difficult for businesses to operate.
He said public resources could legitimately be used to reduce some of the risks facing private investors, particularly where such intervention would unlock investment and create economic opportunities.
‘If a private-sector player wants to invest in a community facing security or infrastructure challenges, it is legitimate for the government to use public resources to help de-risk that investment,’ Bagudu said.
He listed security support, access roads and other critical infrastructure among the areas where government intervention could make a difference.
The minister also proposed the use of the National Credit Guarantee Agency and insurance arrangements to help reduce the risks associated with investing in vulnerable communities.
The initiative comes against the background of a large displacement crisis in Nigeria. Jain said UNHCR’s current operations cover more than 3.7 million internally displaced people, in addition to more than 140,000 refugees and asylum-seekers in the country.
Jain said the scale of displacement made it necessary to move beyond short-term humanitarian assistance towards programmes that enable affected people to earn incomes, establish businesses and rebuild their lives.
According to him, UNHCR’s experience with displaced communities has shown that people generally want opportunities to become economically independent, particularly through employment and sustainable livelihoods.
He said the proposed LEAP programme would bring government, private companies, development finance institutions and development partners together to address the different barriers preventing investment in fragile communities.
Under the proposed arrangement, private companies would identify commercially viable opportunities, development finance institutions would provide suitable financing, while governments and development partners would help address risks that could discourage investors.
Jain said UNHCR had already held discussions with institutions including British International Investment and the International Finance Corporation as part of efforts to develop the initiative. ‘The only way we can succeed is to bring everyone around the table,’ he said.
The $10 billion investment target is expected to cover a range of economic activities across the participating states, with agriculture among the sectors identified as having significant potential.
Bagudu said opportunities existed in agriculture, including oil production and sugar, as well as other commodities.
He called for agricultural models that take account of the security and economic realities of communities affected by displacement.
The minister said displacement should not be treated simply as a humanitarian problem because it also disrupts production, destroys livelihoods and places additional pressure on local economies.
He explained that people forced to leave their communities because of insecurity or natural disasters often lose access to farms, fishing grounds, livestock and other productive assets.
‘Displacement, by its very nature, involves disruption. When people are forced to leave their communities, whether because of natural disasters or insecurity, their economic activities are automatically interrupted,’ he said.
Bagudu said returning displaced people to their communities without restoring their means of earning a living would not be enough to achieve sustainable reintegration.
He said government policy should therefore address poverty, restore productive activities and create opportunities for enterprise alongside efforts to facilitate the return of displaced people.
He also linked the proposed initiative to Nigeria’s long-term economic ambitions, saying the country’s planned $1 trillion economy must generate opportunities across communities rather than concentrate economic activity in a few locations.
‘Our objective is therefore clear: the $1 trillion economy we aspire to build must be inclusive and create opportunities across communities,’ he said.
Bagudu said prolonged displacement could also affect family structures, social cohesion and economic productivity, making economic rehabilitation an important part of rebuilding affected communities.
He recalled his experience as Governor of Kebbi State during a border delineation exercise involving the Republic of Benin following the implementation of a World Court judgment.
According to him, the relocation of communities during the process showed that displacement involved more than moving people from one location to another.
He recalled how a woman in one of the affected communities told him that the farmland available to men on the Nigerian side was much smaller, leaving them with limited productive activity after returning from their farms.
The experience, he said, demonstrated the importance of ensuring that displaced or relocated communities have adequate economic opportunities to support their families.
The minister said the Federal Government was also working to make development planning more responsive to conditions at the local level.
He said the government wanted a clearer understanding of the needs and opportunities across Nigeria’s 8,809 wards.
Such planning, according to him, would make it easier to identify communities affected by displacement, areas hosting displaced populations and the infrastructure and economic challenges that require intervention.
Bagudu said both displaced people and host communities could face serious economic pressure, making cooperation between the Federal, State and Local Governments, the private sector and development partners necessary.
He said the LEAP initiative fitted into the Ministry’s approach to locally driven development and should eventually provide a model that could be applied across the country.
The minister cautioned against limiting the programme permanently to the initial 10 states, saying displacement and vulnerability were not restricted to a particular region.
He said different forms of insecurity, displacement and longstanding community tensions continue to affect access to land, investment and enterprise development in various parts of Nigeria.
Bagudu said every state and governor should be encouraged to examine ways of supporting private investment in communities where security, infrastructure or other constraints might otherwise keep investors away.
He also called for practical projects to demonstrate how the proposed model could work before it is expanded. ‘We should perhaps identify three, four or five projects where we can work together and demonstrate what is possible,’ he said.
Jain said UNHCR was already testing partnerships capable of connecting vulnerable communities with private investment.
He cited the organisation’s partnership with Tropical General Investments (TGI), which is expanding agricultural livelihood opportunities in Benue and Cross River states.
The three-year partnership, announced in June 2026, is expected to support more than 5,000 farmers and create over 10,000 jobs, with refugees, internally displaced persons and host communities among the beneficiaries.
Jain said UNHCR was also discussing additional financing arrangements with development finance institutions and commercial banks to provide affordable funding to farmers, displaced people and other vulnerable groups.
Beyond financing, he said UNHCR was developing community-based early-warning and early-response systems to provide timely information about security developments and support intervention by relevant authorities.
Such information, he said, could also help investors make better decisions about communities that may be broadly classified as high-risk.
Jain noted that security conditions could vary considerably between local government areas and individual communities, meaning that investors could miss viable opportunities if entire states or regions were treated as uniformly risky.
The availability of better local information could therefore help investors assess risks more accurately and identify communities where investment could be undertaken with appropriate safeguards.
Bagudu said existing World Bank-supported programmes could also provide platforms for collaboration under the proposed initiative.
He cited programmes supporting internally displaced people and resilience-building initiatives such as NG-CARES and Nigeria for Women as possible instruments for strengthening private-sector partnerships.
The proposed LEAP framework is consequently being positioned as a shift from dependence on humanitarian assistance towards economic participation, with investment expected to provide jobs, restore livelihoods and strengthen local production.