The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Nigeria will introduce a Deal Room at its 2026 National Conference to connect transport projects with potential financiers.
Mr Festus Okorie, Chairman of the CILT Editorial Board and member of the conference Publicity Committee, disclosed this at a news conference on Wednesday in Lagos to announce the event.
Okorie described the Deal Room as the first of its kind in the institute’s history and a live transaction marketplace rather than a conventional seminar.
About 500 delegates are expected to attend the conference, where selected transport and logistics projects will be presented directly to financiers and private-sector investors.
“The initiative will bring project promoters face-to-face with development finance institutions, infrastructure companies, dealmakers and major private-sector investors.
“The selected projects can include cargo terminals, truck transit parks, cargo charter services and railway-related infrastructure.
“There is no theory. It is just back-to-back projects seeking funding. The initiative is designed to move discussions from ideas to actual transactions,” he said.
Okorie said the Deal Room was necessary because inefficiencies in Nigeria’s transport and logistics system were imposing significant economic costs on the country.
Nigeria loses about N2.9 trillion annually to logistics inefficiencies, while logistics costs account for about 15 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, compared with a global average of about eight per cent. Significant food losses are also linked to transport challenges and inadequate cold-chain infrastructure.
“We cannot consume our way out of this. We must invest our way out,” he said.
CILT Nigeria has invited various stakeholders, including the Federal Capital Territory Administration, to submit project concepts for consideration. Technical committees will assess the submissions and select the 10 most viable projects for presentation at the conference.
Promoters of the selected projects will pitch them live to potential financiers and investors during the Deal Room sessions.
Okorie said the initiative had received the backing of the institute’s leadership and formed part of efforts to bridge the gap between viable transport projects and available investment capital.
He called on governments, investors and other stakeholders to support the initiative by bringing forward credible projects requiring funding.
The Deal Room would provide an opportunity for investors to identify viable projects while enabling CILT Nigeria to demonstrate the services and professional expertise it could offer.
He urged the media to support the initiative by creating awareness and encouraging governments, project developers and investors to participate.
The ultimate objective, he said, was to move Nigeria’s transport and logistics sector from repeated discussions about challenges to concrete investment and implementation.
