Lagos Ehingbeti: Taking the spirit of collaboration to the next level

Even across sectors, corporations to increase revenue and customers base will

would reach the level the world has never seen before.

With countries around the world beginning to implement recovery strategies

from the shockwave of Coronavirus, the Lagos Economic Summit Group

(LESG) is poised to chart the path for the sustainable socio-economic

development of Lagos State at the Lagos Economic Summit tagged

‘ Ehingbeti  2020’ scheduled to hold from November 10 – 12, 2020.

This experiential project is themed ‘For a Greater Lagos: Setting The Tone For

The Next Decade’, Ehingbeti 2020 will provide a robust platform for

deliberations on pragmatic optimisation of the inherent opportunities in Africa’s

5th largest economy and offer perspectives on how to manage the peculiar

socio-economic landscape of the State in the coming decade. The three-day

summit, which will be a hybrid of virtual and live events, will draw

participation from various sectors of the economy and across the globe.

With the absence of the economic summit in the past four years, there seemed

to be a decline in the rate of public-private collaboration in Lagos. This year’s

summit is aimed at reconnecting with the private sector, which is the bedrock of

the Lagos Economic Summit. The quest to strengthen the existing relationship

between government and the private sector is one of the major goals of this

summit since greater private sector participation in governance is a prerequisite

for a functional State.

The Group has also refreshed the Ehingbeti logo to reflect the contemporary

outlook of the annual summit without disconnecting from the economic heritage

of the Marina and Broad Streets areas of Lagos, which served as the

springboard for Nigerian and West African economic development since the

European incursion in the 15th century.-

Unveiling the new logo, Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, Co-Chair of the ‘Ehingbeti

2020’ Steering Committee and former Lagos State Commissioner for Economic

Planning & Budget said “this new Ehingbeti logo is an embodiment of

meanings and expression of the LESG ideals. The convergence of colours in the

logo connotes the essence of Ehingbeti as a participatory forum for integrating

local and international stakeholders to exchange ideas and chart a path for the

socio-economic development of Lagos State”

Acknowledged as the first institutionalised economic forum by any State in

Nigeria, Ehingbeti is a public-private sector roundtable that started as a

collaborative effort between the Lagos State Government and Business Club

Ikeja. Since the inaugural summit in 2000, the summit has gained useful

insights from innumerable business and political leaders, private sector players,

renowned economists, notable development experts and outstanding scholars,

who have participated from various parts of the world.

Can Ehingbeti emerge as that ingenuous socio-economic apparatus that can

elevate significantly the evolution of Lagos State into a major economy in sub-

Saharan Africa and an admirable megacity, with expanding potentialities? The

summits, hosted by successive administrations in Lagos State since the

beginning of the 4th Republic, have tried with limited success to redefined the

dynamics of public-private sector collaboration for development across social

and economic indices in Lagos State. Can the 2020 edition become the magic

wand?