With a mission to lead change in Africa by providing evidence-based solutions, Danne Institute for Research, a Lagos-based research organisation, is set to host the first edition of the Transport and Traffic Conference titled “Connectivity and Productivity in Lagos Megacity”.
The webinar, which is scheduled to hold on Thursday, February 04, 2021, is organised in partnership with BusinessDay, Nigeria’s foremost business newspaper.
The governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, will participate in the a public-private sector dialogue on the causes of Lagos’ perennial traffic congestion, its costs to individuals, businesses and government and sustainable solutions.
The conference is aimed at catalysing discussions around the opportunities and risks facing Lagos if the megacity’s connectivity challenges are not addressed and the imperative of using research-based solutions in the concerted efforts directed at solving the perennial traffic problems.
Founder and executive director of Danne Institute for Research, Franca Ovadje, said Lagos is overwhelmed with congestion, mobility challenges, high commuting costs and inadequate infrastructure.
A Report states that three of every ten years spent in Lagos is lost to traffic congestion, according to her.
“At this Dialogue, Danne Institute for Research will present findings of its research on connectivity and productivity. Results of the study conducted by Financial Derivatives Company in collaboration with Danne Institute on the economic costs of traffic congestion in the megacity will also be presented. This novel research has implications for individuals, businesses and the Lagos State Government,” Ovadje said, speaking about the webinar.
In its Connectivity and Productivity report set to be launched same day of the event, the research institute stated that traffic jams are still a regular sight in Lagos despite the state spending approximately 38 percent of its budget in the last two decades on infrastructure, building roads and bridges and revamping the public transport system.
The study on the cost of traffic congestion which was done in conjunction with Financial Derivatives Company is novel in the sense that it estimates the economic costs of traffic congestion to individuals and businesses in Lagos, a city where “more than eight million people move in five million vehicles on a tiny road network of 9,204 roads, including two tollways and three bridges linking the mainland to the island.”
Tayo Fagbule, BusinessDay’s editor, will moderate the webinar while Ovadje will be the keynote speaker.
Other subject matter experts on the discussion panel are Toki Mobogunje, President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI), Wale Adediran, President, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) and Joseph Agunbiade, Co-Founder, BudgIT.
