LESG, stakeholders to validate Lagos’ 30-year development plan at Ehingbeti Summit

The Lagos Economic Summit Group (LESG) has stated that it would strengthen its partnership with stakeholders in the private sector to validate Lagos State’s 30-year development plan at the Ehingbeti Summit.

The Summit scheduled to hold on October 11 and 12, 2022, in Lagos is a special Summit compared to the previous Summits held in the past according to the Chief Operations Officer, Lagos Economic Summit Group, (LESG), Simisola Otuyalo, who spoke on the sidelines of the Ehingbeti Summit activation exercise at the Lagos State secretariat.

Otuyalo said the ninth Ehingbeti Summit is a special one as the summit would bring together the private sector and the public sector to discuss policies and initiatives to help develop the State.

“This summit is a special one because we are coming up with a 30-year development plan and we have gone to stakeholders across the State to come together to bring this plan. We are using this summit to present the plan to ensure that we have the buy-in of every stakeholder so that we all know that we have a plan that would run the State in the next 30 years,” she added.

“This is different from the past Summits we have had. We are meeting to discuss the plan and validate it for implementation. The plan will not be implemented by the State government alone and that is why we are collaborating with all stakeholders. From now on, we will begin to run that 30-year plan as part of the Summit we would be having after this so that we know that we are on track.”

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She said based on the Ehingbeti Summit platform, every participant is a dignitary, maintaining that every stakeholder is seen as a development partner of Lagos.

Also speaking, Tayo Oseni Ogbe, director, Lagos Bureau of Statistics, noted that the summit would provide a platform for investors to address the challenges and seek new innovative ways to encourage the building of and development of Lagos.

“We expect Ehingbeti of 2022 to bring in more investors to our city through the use of data for development. The present administration is using the THEMES agenda, using evidence-based data and we also hope that within the next few years, Lagos will be like most developed cities across the world,” he said.

“We expect the GDP of the State to grow at an average of 5 per cent in the next few years to come and hopefully, we expect to perform far better than we expect considering tourism, MSMEs and lots of investment. This is why the present administration is using the THEMES agenda to attract investors as well as ensuring that things are put in proper perspective,” he said.

“Already you can see the blue and red rail projects and other developmental projects the State government is working on and also the agric initiative to achieve food security as well as good governance to drive the economy of Lagos,” he said.

Lekan Balogun, senior special adviser to the Governor on economic planning and budget, Lagos State, said the Summit would usher in a new sense of direction, the launch of the 30-year development plan (2022-2052) and high impacting resolutions, pointing out that some of the iconic projects the State is benefitting from presently, emanated from previous Summits, assuring Lagosians of more iconic and futuristic innovations to come out of the ninth Ehingbeti Summit.