LADOL boss hinges growth of $200bn W/African market on capacity building
Recently in Copenhagen in Denmark, global business leaders gathered to brainstorm on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of strategies for survival.
Amy Jadesimi, managing director of the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics base (LADOL), says investors can adequately service the $200 billion market opportunities in West Africa if only they can sustainably build capacity so as to transfer skills among young minds.
The annual event organised by Global Green Growth Forum (3GF) took place from June 6-7 2016, with the theme: “A call to action-enabling solutions at speed and scale.” It featured invited speakers from across how to achieve greener global transformation.
A statement issued by LADOL indicates that Jadesimi, who was one of the two prominent Nigerians that graced the event, was on the panel representing the Global Commission for Sustainable Development, as one of its 31 Commissioners.
Also present at the event was Akinwumi Adesina, the president of African Development Bank (AfDB). The Commission featured Mark Malloch-Brown as co-chair, Global Commission for Business and Sustainable Development.
In her presentation at the opening session which focused on the need to proliferate a new social contract, the LADOL boss notes that “International banks and investors need to re-define their ability to enable them participate in the highly lucrative opportunities for investment around the world.”
According to her, this will help to rapidly achieve the Sustainable Development Goals” for Nigeria and West African countries, which she estimated as the untapped potential to stand at $200 billion.
She further noted that companies like LADOL has since keyed into the goals’ mantra, hence, it is poised to create no less than 50,000 jobs in the nearest future through investment in Nigeria’s logistics, oil and gas sector.
Describing the role of LADOL in the Global Commission of Sustainable Development, with reference to how it has so far fared as a prime example of a new economy sustainable company, she revealed: “SDGs have been part of LADOL’s DNA for a decade, our success comes from the fact that we invested in building capacity to service a clearly defined and drastically underserved $200 billion market in West Africa.
“Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) and other companies in high growth markets need to do their part to attract investment by being FCPA compliant and better quantifying the private sector opportunities they have identified.”
Continuing, she states “Empowering local communities and civil societies is one of the first things investors should do to identify and tap into these opportunities – even the poorest people in the world will invest in healthcare and education, given the option. In many cases, they are paying for these things already. The role of government and NGOs is to facilitate and define opportunities, while the role of the private sector is to execute and sustain investment.”
Over the last 10 years, she claimed, LADOL was developed in line with the SDGs, and this has proved that private sector can derive significant profits while achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by pursuing opportunities in growth markets like Nigeria and West Africa as a whole,” she added.
In underscoring the relevance of the 3GF 2016 towards global transformation, a statement by the organisers of the annual event noted, “the momentum has never been greater for a green transformation of our world.
“This transformation will only be possible through genuine partnerships between public and private sector actors that unleash new sources of ideas, technology, and financing to scale up development solutions. The Global Green Growth Forum -3GF- has been continuously working to catalyse game-changing public-private partnerships to accelerate this transition, and bring transformative solutions to a global scale.”
The 2016 edition of the annual international event according to the conveners, was aimed at consolidating the outcome of its past activities such as the 2015 3GF, the SDG implementation and climate action that took place in New York 21-22 April 2016, will now focus on agenda-setting and public commitment on sustainable development.
Other panellists who featured at the session were, prime Minister of Denmark, Lars Lokke Rasmussen (Prime Minister of Denmark); Minister for Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam, Tran Hong Ha and the European Union (EU) Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, among others.
Uzoamaka Anagor-Ewuzie