Lagos targets Q1 2021 for economic forum

The Lagos Economic Summit Group (LESG) has announced the postponement of Ehingbeti, the Lagos Economic Forum, earlier scheduled to hold this week, to a later date in the first quarter of 2021.

With this postponement, the Economic Summit themed ‘For a Greater Lagos: Setting The Tone For The Next Decade’, has become a component of the Rebuild Lagos Agenda.

According to the State Government, a new date for the summit conceived to provide a robust platform for deliberations on pragmatic optimization of the inherent opportunities in Africa’s 5th largest economy and offer perspectives on how to manage the peculiar socio-economic landscape of the State in the coming decade will be announced in the coming weeks.

“Happenings in our immediate past have not significantly altered the focus of the Ehingbeti, but they have broadened breadth of discussions that will happen at the Summit and expanded the composition of stakeholders’ expected to participate in the summit next year,” said Sam Egube, the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, who is also a Co-chair of the Steering Committee.

“We have recently witnessed circumstances that were hitherto not part of our social fabric in Lagos State. These surprises have not only necessitated the postponement of the summit but also compelled a methodical reappraisal of our social system, which Ehingbeti will address in the first quarter of 2021” concluded Egube.

Earlier in October, the Group at different interactive sessions with their private sector counterparts and the media had announced a date for the summit and refreshed the Ehingbeti logo to reflect the contemporary outlook of the annual summit.

Specifically, the logo refresh was to ensure that the summit did not disconnect from the economic heritage of the Marina and Broad Streets areas of Lagos, which served as the springboard for Nigerian and West African economic development since the European incursion in the 15th century.

The OPS had advised that the government should invest in technology while enabling entrepreneurial youth domiciled in the state to take advantage of their skills and talents.

Chairman, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) Ikeja branch, Otunba Francis Meshioye, said the government should match manpower development with available needs to create room for employment.

Meshioye said there are many companies domiciled in Lagos, adding that if the growth of industrialists is eroded, it will affect the economy and gross domestic product of the country at large.

He said Lagos needs more industrial clusters to become the desired economic hub, stating that the government needs to create viable links to channel goods from one cluster to another.

The Director-General, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Ambassador Ayoola Olukanni, said attention needs to be focused on municipal solid waste.

Olukanni who expressed support for the summit said Lagos State is still struggling with issues of waste management, which if not tackled could be an awaiting disaster.