Nigeria is stepping up efforts to attract investment in key sectors, including power, mining, and infrastructure, as part of broader moves to strengthen the economy and drive sustainable growth.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele disclosed this while speaking on the sidelines of high-level engagements involving President Bola Tinubu at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali.

He noted that the administration is actively promoting Nigeria as an investment destination.

He said the president has taken a leading role in showcasing the country’s economic potential to global investors.

“One very exciting thing about Mr President is that he is never tired of marketing Nigeria; he is the chief marketer for the country,” the minister said, adding that discussions with investors have focused on unlocking opportunities in power, solid minerals, and private sector development.

Focus on investment opportunities

According to the minister, recent engagements have centred on mobilising investment into strategic sectors, including port development, mining, and private enterprise.

He said Nigeria is working to better communicate its economic strengths, noting that previous efforts to present the country’s opportunities to investors had been inadequate.

“We were not telling our stories as we should before now. By telling a credible story, backed by what has been achieved and the commitment to do more, we can attract the right investments,” he said.

Mr Oyedele also spoke on bilateral engagements with the President of Guinea, describing the relationship between both countries as one of mutual cooperation and shared development goals.

He said President Tinubu commended his Guinean counterpart for maintaining ties with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) despite pressures to withdraw.

According to him, both countries are exploring collaboration in areas such as iron ore development and broader economic partnerships.

“We are stronger together,” the minister said, noting that both leaders expressed satisfaction with the outcome of their discussions.

Reforms and Africa’s growth

Speaking further, the minister said Nigeria’s ongoing economic reforms are beginning to position the country as an example for other African nations.

He acknowledged that while the reforms have been challenging, they were necessary to put the economy on a sustainable path.

“It wasn’t meant to be easy, but it was necessary. Now we are on that track towards realising the gains,” he said.

READ ALSO: Oyedele pledges to transform economic reforms into tangible benefits for Nigerians

Mr Oyedele added that discussions at the Africa CEO Forum focused on scaling economic growth, accelerating implementation, and strengthening institutions across the continent.

He said African leaders are increasingly shifting from policy discussions to execution, with emphasis on financing development, promoting value addition, and stimulating growth in key sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, technology, and services.

According to him, the broader goal is to drive inclusive growth and lift more Africans out of poverty.

“The time for rhetoric is over; it is now time for execution,” he said, noting that the current period presents an opportunity not only to serve Nigeria but also contributes to the continent’s development.

OpenAI is so frustrated with Apple over a ChatGPT integration that failed to deliver the subscribers and prominence it expected that the company is now actively exploring legal action against the iPhone maker, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

According to Bloomberg, OpenAI has enlisted an outside law firm to work through its options, which could include sending Apple a formal breach-of-contract notice without necessarily escalating to a full lawsuit (at least not immediately). Any legal move would likely wait until after the conclusion of OpenAI’s ongoing trial with Elon Musk.

Still, it’s a reminder of what a difficult partner Apple can be for major software companies. The iPhone is an enormously attractive platform for growth, but it’s fully under Apple’s control — and companies that build there are only guests. From Google to Adobe, there’s a long history of Apple showing guests the door when they seem as if they’re getting too comfortable.

TechCrunch has reached out to both OpenAI and Apple for comment.

The OpenAI partnership, announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2024, wove ChatGPT into Apple’s operating systems as an option within Siri and as part of the iPhone’s Visual Intelligence feature (allowing users to use their camera to analyze their surrounds and send photos to ChatGPT with related questions).

OpenAI, along with industry watchers, expected the deal might eventually funnel billions of dollars in new subscriptions its way and give the company prime real estate across one of the world’s most-used mobile ecosystems. Instead, Bloomberg reports, OpenAI has grown increasingly aggravated, complaining that the integration has been buried, its features hard to find, and that revenue from the tie-up is nowhere close to projections. “They basically said, ‘OpenAI needs to take a leap of faith and trust us,’” one OpenAI executive told Bloomberg. “It didn’t work out well.”

Apple, for its part, has its own grievances, including concerns about OpenAI’s privacy standards and, according to Bloomberg, irritation over OpenAI’s push into hardware, an effort led by former Apple executives including ex-design chief Jony Ive.

Either way, OpenAI is hardly the first partner of Apple to regret hitching its wagon to the company. Apple has a long history of embracing partners and then alienating them. The most famous case is Google Maps, which was a flagship feature of the original iPhone. It was so central to the device’s appeal that its removal in 2012 — replaced by Apple’s markedly inferior Apple Maps product — became one of the biggest tech fiascos of the decade, prompting a rare public apology from CEO Tim Cook. The friction between the two companies had been building for years at that point, thanks to the rollout of Google’s Android phone a year after the iPhone’s 2007 debut; after Google’s then-CEO Eric Schmidt stepped down from Apple’s board in 2009, that rivalry only intensified.

Adobe has some scar tissue, too. Steve Jobs refused to support Flash on the iPhone and iPad, publishing a famous open letter in 2010 explaining why and effectively dooming the technology. Flash never recovered its footing on mobile.

Then there’s Spotify, which spent years arguing that Apple leveraged its control over the App Store to disadvantage rival music streaming services after launching Apple Music in 2015. The European Commission agreed, fining Apple nearly €1.8 billion in March 2024.

Sometimes these rifts can be overcome in the name of commercial interests. Google is now Apple’s AI infrastructure partner, having struck a multiyear deal in January to power the next generation of Apple Intelligence with Gemini models. Apple is paying Google roughly $1 billion a year.

In the meantime, OpenAI has had its own share of strained relationships lately. Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the company — which accuses OpenAI of abandoning its nonprofit founding mission and operating in bad faith — is currently at trial.

The company has also reportedly navigated tensions with Microsoft, its biggest backer and infrastructure partner, as it pushes for greater independence ahead of its own IPO ambitions.