Updated: Lagos revives Ehingbeti, plans 2020 summit November 10-12

The government of Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial hub, has resuscitated the annual Ehingbeti Summit after the last one held in 2014.

The state has concluded plans to hold the 2020 summit November 10-12 with the theme ‘For greater Lagos: Setting the tone for the next decade’, according to Samuel Egube, the state Commissioner for Economic Planning & Budget.

Egube, who announced this in Lagos on Sunday, said the state has implemented 109 out of 119 resolutions from Ehingbeti summit.

The Lagos State economic summit, he said, has been the convening platform driven by the private sector and backed up by the government to basically show the vibrancy of the state in the way it interacts, collaborates, and the way it pursues inclusive governance mechanism for the state.

Ehingbeti has since inception created an enabling forum for all stakeholders in Lagos to showcase Lagos as a destination for investment, democracy, culture and tourism as well as a credible sub-national capable of pulling off a world-class global summit.

The summit brings together local, foreign private sector, technocrats, government representatives, civil society members, the academia, multilateral agencies, and government partners, to have a conversation as to how the dream Lagos should look like.

“The summit has a huge history and it’s now firmly established as a credible forum for stimulating economic growth in Lagos State,” Egube said.

“We have started to implement from early decisions that have been made. So far about 119 resolutions were taken in the course of the history of Ehingbeti and 109 of them have been implemented.

“The government is responsible to the decisions taken in Ehingbeti and we are obliged to return to next Ehingbeti what we have done with the decisions we took and if there are challenges, we highlight those challenges and take another decision as to how to resolve those challenges,” he said.

He said the whole idea about the blue line, red line, and rail master plan are part of the ideas that came out of Ehingbeti.

“I can tell you we are on our way to deliver both the red line and the blue line. The fact that we are trying to expand our activities on the waterways is also Ehingbeti. Lagos homeownership scheme, all came out of Ehingbeti,” he said.

Yemi Cardoso, co-chairman, 2020 Ehingbeti, said there is so much to look forward to in this year’s summit as he commended the governor of Lagos State for bringing back Ehingbeti.

He said it was timely that this was happening because Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on economies all over the world.

Cardoso said it’s a great opportunity for the private sector to show what Lagos is truly made of and what it can do.

“We are committed to partnering with Lagos State to continue to put this forward,” said Muda Yusuf, director general, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).