Power, health, transport, education to top debates at infrastructure summit

Power, health, transport and education to top discussions at the forthcoming Nigeria infrastructure Public Private Partnership summit scheduled for the last quarter of the year.

The organisers said the critical sectors align with the Federal Government development priorities.

“This summit is about charting the way forward in four critical sectors and establishing a private sector-led Community of Practice, working in collaboration with government across all levels that will ensure the successful implementation of these roadmaps,” Gori Olusina Daniel, partner and Africa regional director at Adams & Moore, says in a statement.

The statement further notes that Muhammadu Sanusi II, Emir of Kano, has thrown his weight behind the forthcoming summit.

The Emir, a former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, according to the statement, gave his nod to the summit while speaking with the summit planning team recently in his Palace in Kano when the latter paid him a courtesy visit. The visit was part of several scheduled consultations with various stakeholders on infrastructure development in the country.

The planning team, led by A.B Mahmoud, managing partner at Dikko & Mahmoud, and it included Gori Olusina Daniel and Hakeem Adeleye, both from Adams & Moore, a UK-based global professional advisory firm, Ibrahim Abdullahi and Zubaida Mahmoud from Dikko & Mahmoud, a full service law firm.

The Emir, who highlighted the need for a pragmatic approach in developing Nigeria’s infrastructure across different sectors, bemoaned the non-implementation of several recommendations from previous successful summits by past governments.

“I understand the critical role infrastructure plays in developing our economy, and in particular, the need for Nigeria to address the key social infrastructure deficit particularly in education and health that will deliver a better quality of life not just for the elite, but for those in society for whom access to one thousand naira could make the difference between losing a child and obtaining the medication and treatment that could save a child’s life,” he said.

The summit aims to establish a private sector-led Community of Practice with the mandate to work with government at all levels to ensure the delivery of sector-specific roadmaps for the development of critical infrastructure through public private partnerships, Mahmoud told the Emir.