Last week, Lagos State Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Summa Group, an international construction company, for the development and construction of Lekki-Epe International Airport.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu announced the agreement via a post on X, describing it as a major step toward improving connectivity, fostering economic growth, and attracting global investment to Lagos.
The MoU was signed with the Summa Group to develop and construct the much-awaited Lekki-Epe International Airport.
Sanwo-Olu said the ground-breaking initiative is an essential part of Lagos State’s vision to improve connectivity, stimulate economic growth, and draw in global investments.
Summa Group was established in 1989 by Mete Bora in Ankara after the construction of Atakule Tower, which immediately became the city’s landmark.
Read also: Sanwo-Olu signs MoU for construction of Lekki-Epe Int’l airport
In 1990, Summa completed its first international project in Gara Altin Presidential Guest House in Ashgabat Turkmenistan. In 1994, the company expanded into Russia.
Since then till date, the company has expanded into several countries, constructing projects in various sectors such as aviation, hotels, offices, residential, conventions, education, shopping malls, government buildings, marine, sports and healthcare, among others.
Headquartered in Moscow, Summa Group owns assets in the oil and gas, telecommunications, engineering, construction, and port logistics sectors.
Its subsidiaries include: Summa Telecom, Yakutsk Fuel and energy company.
Summa Group’s financial services arm offers wealth management services, including asset management and estate planning.
The group is part of Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.
Barron’s and Forbes ranks the group as one of the top financial advisors in the United States.
A professor of competitive strategy, who has some knowledge about the company but would not want his name mentioned, said: “I have now seen that Summa International Construction Group was founded in 1989, and expanded into Russia in 1994.
“The other ‘Summa Group’ was founded by a Russian oligarch in 1993 but was called Summa Capital till 2011 but is now defunct apparently,” the professor said.
The professor explained that the current chair of Turkish Summa is the son of the founder, who joined the family business in 1993. He is in charge of business development in the Russian neighbourhood (Turkmenistan & Kyrgyzstan) and was promoted the regional manager of Summa for Russia based in Moscow in 1995 before becoming group chairman in 1999.
“So their corporate history seems to have had quite a few Russian linkages in the 1990s, and the dates interestingly seem to overlap the Russian Summa, but to be fair, big business in UK & US also had heavy Russian exposure in the 90s, and many of them had to go through oligarchs as well,” he added.
However, among the group of companies under Summa, Summa International Construction Company is the subsidiary that would be helping Lagos to build the proposed Lekki International Airport.
The construction company specialises in the design and execution of projects. The company has its operations in 14 countries across four continents.
Summa Construction has completed several projects across diverse geographies and under challenging conditions in many countries, including Russia, Turkmenistan, Romania, Moldova, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Venezuela, Senegal, Rwanda, Republic of the Congo, Niger and Turkey. Summa has become one of the leading contractors worldwide and is rated as one of the top 225 international contractors listed by ENR since 2004.
Aviation projects developed by Summa Construction have been majorly across Africa and they include Osvaldo Vieira International Airport, Guinea-Bissau; Freetown International Airport, Sierra Leone; Diffa airport, Niger; Diori Hamani International Airport, Niger; Blaise Diagne International Airport, Senegal; International Airport Magas, Russia; and Chisinau International Airport Terminal Building, Moldova.
The company also designed the new international terminal building for Vnukovo Airport, Moscow.
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