Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Thursday, stressed the need for Africans to harness the strength of her multi-stakeholder partnerships and leverage enterprise-driven innovations to create impact ecosystems that foster inclusive growth and recovery.
Sanwo-Olu made the call, while speaking at the Africa Social Impact Summit (ASIS), themed: “Global Vision, Local Action: Repositioning The African Development Ecosystem for Sustainable Outcomes,” which took place at the Eko Convention Center, Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island.
Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, argued that Africa must come together, with a renewed spirit of collaboration, innovation, and determination, to build a prosperous and sustainable continent for all, calling on the private sector to lead in driving the change.
“We must come together, with a renewed spirit of collaboration, innovation and determination, to build a prosperous and sustainable Africa for all. I call upon the private sector, with its scale, sustainability, and innovation, to take the lead in driving change. We must harness the strength of our multi-stakeholder partnerships and leverage enterprise-driven innovations to create impact ecosystems that foster inclusive growth and recovery,” he said.
The governor, however, noted that the expected outcomes of ASIS 2.0 were far-reaching and transformative, urging stakeholders and partners to seek to build a result-oriented global and regional partnership that would fast-track the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation.
According to him, stakeholders and partners represent a powerful force for positive change, positing that it is through collaboration and partnership that they can overcome challenges and create a lasting impact.
“As we emerged from the shadows of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is vital that we foster high-level discussions, share knowledge, and leverage our collective expertise to build a sustainable future for Lagos, Nigeria, and Africa,” the governor said.
Speaking further, Sanwo-Olu stated that the summit seeks to reshape Africa’s impact solutions and accelerate the achievements of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), recalling that his administration, upon assumption of office in 2019, established the Office of Sustainable Development Goals and Investment to align the state development project (THEMES) with the global development agenda (SDGs).
He added that his administration also aimed to attract investment and partnership for the execution of SDGs-related projects as well as monitor and measure the outcome and impacts of all projects relevant to SDGs in collaboration with other relevant agencies of government.
Senior Special Adviser (SSA) on Industrialization to the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Prof. Oyebanji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, outlined certain indexes Africa should prioritize for her socio-economic and political development.
According to him, the indexes should be agro-economic based, saying there was a need for industrialisation, especially for the production of the continent’s basic needs, just as he noted that no nation can develop without paying attention to the agricultural sector.
Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, while noting that developing nations, especially Nigeria, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), among others, have more natural resources and available lands than the developed nations, lamented that “despite this, African countries are yet to make use of these natural resources for their development.”
“Nigeria has gas, crude oil, rich available lands, but still importing refined oil, wasting away our gas through flaring, while the lands are not utilized to the maximum level that can produce food supplies to the citizenry,” he said sadly.
The AfDB boss, therefore, urged African countries to migrate from being consumption nations to production countries by making sure they produce what they eat and eat what they produce, even as he further urged the promoter of the event to proffer viable solutions that were capable of catapulting Nigeria’s economy into a global reckoning being “time to rejig the nation’s economic policy.”
He specifically advocated for a shift from subsistence agricultural practice to mechanized one, where substantial hectares of land would be cultivated.
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