Experts to brainstorm on economic challenges facing Nigeria, Africa
By ABDUL OLALEKAN
Economic experts are expected to converge in Lagos to discuss and proffer solutions to social and economic challenges facing African countries, especially Nigeria.
The experts, who will be led by a renowned scholar and Professor of African Economies at Oxford University, U.K, Professor Paul Collier, will discuss the challenge of Africa’s future cities at the 2017 CVL Annual Lecture/International Leadership Symposium scheduled to take place in Lagos on February 6, 2017.
A statement from Centre for Values in Leadership(CVL), signed by its Senior Vice President, Mr. Rasheed Adegbenro, and made available to Business 247 News Online, said the lecture is in partnership with Lagos State Government, Smart City Lagos & Private Estates International West Africa (PEIWA).
The centre pointed out that the lecture is a national discourse that will provide new knowledge on emerging urban trends and new thinking around building smart cities, efficient cities, functional cities and resilient cities in Africa.
This initiative, it stated, will involve concerted efforts by the four collaborating organisations to drive nationwide activities aimed at challenging governments to build habitable rural areas, urban centres, cities, mega cities, mega regions, megalopolis, smart cities, sustainable cities and resilient cities.
CVL stated that the outcomes of the annual lecture will provide Nigeria with options to address the bulging urban population in the country and associated social and economic challenges.
The United Nations (UN), according to the centre, has projected that the world’s population will grow from 7.3 billion to 9.7 billion by 2050 largely in developing countries, including regions such as sub-Saharan Africa.
Nigeria, it said, is expected to contribute major share of the sub-Saharan regional population growth, as Nigeria’s urban population rose from 3.2 million in 1953, to a staggering 70 million in 2007.
“Based on the threshold of 20,000 inhabitants as minimum required to define an urban centre by the National Population Commission, the number of cities in Nigeria rose by fifteen fold from 56 in 1953 to 843 in 2004 with 6 cities reporting population of one million or more!. The lecture/symposium will integrate challenges from these trends and help define CVL’s agenda for workshops in 2017,” it said.
Stating that developed economies are already responding to the challenges of the population explosion with the introduction of smart cities, it added that the United States and Dubai, for instance, have launched initiatives to help local communities tackle key challenges such as reducing traffic congestion, fighting crime, fostering economic growth, managing the effects of a changing climate, and improving the delivery of city services.
Lagos and Enugu States have keyed into this global concern and it is expected that national consciousness will be aroused as an outcome of the CVL lecture, it pointed out.
Meanwhile, President, Global Economic Institute for Africa in Canada, Dr. Fred Olayele; Associate Professor, Department of Urban & Regional Planning, University of Lagos, Dr. Taibat Lawanson; Managing Director/CEO, Private Estates International West Africa- developers of Enugu Centennial Lifestyle City, Mr. Kingsley Eze, and CEO, Fine and Country West Africa, Mrs. Udo Okonjo, are among the panel of discussants scheduled for the event.
While former governor, Cross River State, Senator Liyel Imoke, will chair the occasion, the governor of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki is the Chief Guest of Honour, even as the Chief Host is Professor Pat Utomi, Founder/CEO CVL.
