Lagos Revives Ehingbeti Summit

The Lagos State Government, represented by the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, announced its decision to revisit the annual Ehingbeti Economic Summit, after holding the last one in 2014. The 2020 edition will be virtually held as a result of the pandemic, spanning from the 10th of November to the 12th of November, 2020.

The 2020 edition is themed “For Greater Lagos: Setting the Tone for The Next Decade.” Samuel Egube, the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget revealed this in an interview with several journalists on Sunday, unveiling the plans of the state. The Lagos state government plans for the summit to be targeted at opening up and stimulating avenues for investment in the state.

The Economic Summit is also known as Ehingbeti. It was created to serve as a platform for members of both the public and private sectors in the state to meet and strategically discuss factors to spur socio-economic and development of infrastructure in the state. The Summit also revolves around generating and implementing innovations and ideas to cause undeniable economic growth and development in the state.

The event started as an annual event in 2000, before it later evolved to become a biannual conference. The objectives of the 2020 summit, as revealed by the commissioner on the 27th of September include;

• To create an environment to enable progressive discussion in the state.

• To showcase the state to the world, building on the challenges that come with the pandemic.

• To engage the younger generation in the conversation.

In addition to the commissioner, others present at the meeting included distinguished stakeholders, such as Olayemi Cardoso, the Co-chairman of Ehingbeti Committee, Professor Yinka David-West, and Dr Reuben Abati, Chairman and co-chairman of Citibank Nigeria, among others.

Egube revealed that most of the developments the state has witnessed were inspired by ideas from previous editions of the Ehingbeti summit. He also stated that the summit is a cooperative work between the private sectors and state sector operators. The summit has witnessed 109 implementations out of 119 resolutions suggested those present at previous editions of the summit.

The Commissioner explained that projects such as the rail line projects, the Lekki toll gate, and others, were generated by ideas from the economic summit. He made it clear that the summit was full of rich history and has been firmly established as a credible platform for causing economic growth in the state. According to him, the state government believes that leading Lagos involves a collaboration of every mind for such a leadership to be effective, and this is the reason for the Ehingbeti summit.

He also added that the government was always responsible for decisions taken. This means that the government tackles challenges which may result from the decisions taken at the summit and works on practical ways to repair the challenges.