Ahead of the 2020 African-France summit on urban development, France said it is set to explore Africa’s urban development challenges for cities with a view to curbing them. The Summit for Sustainable Cities holding next year in the French city of Bordeaux, the European nation has been networking and harvesting key development issues across the continent.
At two separate events held in Lagos on Monday, October 21, 2019 at the French Cultural Centre, Alliance Francaise, the government of France on one hand and a not-for-profit, on the other, engaged stakeholders on various aspects of sustainable development in relation to human settlement. The first of the two forums, themed “Private and Public Innovations for Sustainable Cities”, saw Jérôme Pasquier, the French ambassador to Nigeria, promising to support Nigeria in achieving sustainable urban development through public and private investments.
Reminding the audience of France’s leadership in the fight against climate change, Ambassador Pasquier underlined the fact that sustainability entails not only climate smartness but also making cities welcoming for all through access to basic services and well-designed public spaces. He revealed that these issues would form the bedrock for the Africa-France Summit, which France will host in June 2020.
Participants at the conference acknowledged the necessity to share and promote solutions, across the public and private sectors, to make cities more sustainable and welcomed today’s conference as an opportunity to do that. Deputy Governor of Lagos, Obafemi Hamzat, opened the conference, which brought together French and Nigerian private companies ranging from start-ups to multinational enterprises in sectors such as transportation (Alstom, Kwik, Shuttlers), energy (Arnergy, Clean Technology Hub, Greenelec), as well aswaste and sanitation (EnvironQuest, WeCyclers, SGI).
