Th e African Union, Economic, Social and Cultural Council (AU ECOSOCC) Nigeria offi ce and GRC Motorsports limited while unveiling the blueprint for a city themed: “U-City, an agricultural and mining city expected to drive the achievement of the African Union Agenda 2063, revealed that agriculture, mining and tourism sectors are being adopted to be the commodity-export sectors of the programme.
Addressing journalists at the AU ECOSOCC Nigeria offi ce, the initiator of the plan and Chief Executive Offi cer, GRC Motorsports limited, Mr. Ribi Adeshokan, explained that the city will the centre of agricultural commodity hubs and help reduce rural urban migration.
He said currently, one of such city themed Madison city is being set up in Nassarawa State and would be tailored towards agro and mining.
Adding that the production of Shea butter and cashew nut will be established there.
“Nigeria is the biggest importer of Shea butter but we don’t have have any trading hub in Nigeria so people are just coming in, going to the villages paying peanuts to our mothers who are working hard to make living for their household then that is it.
Th e whole idea is to create a hub in Nigeria where everyone can come in and do commodity trading.
“Another thing which is key is the food resources, now we are saying that we need to feed ourselves but the problem is that 75 to 80% of the food produce does not get to the city because of logistics problem we have across Africa but with the U-city concept it means that those foods does not necessarily need to come to the city because as the farmers are farming locally, most of it will be consumed there since the city is plan to reverse the current problem of rural urban migration.
“Lagos state is a typical example, they push in so much but because of 21 million people in that space it puts a lot of pressure on the development.
If the rural areas can be urbanized it means that we can have the population of Africa to spread out so the pressure won’t be on the urban areas.
Th e whole idea is to reverse rural-urban migration to urban-rural migration but to achieve that the best way to do that is let’s look at the commodity we fi nd in that environment develops it, integrate it and make it more viable and in the course of our journey we found out that Africa and Nigeria especially is so abundant with everything from the landscape to raw material, God has blessed us but unfortunately maybe because of oil money people are not taking note of or are neglecting other potential opportunities.
“ We are loosing a lot in agriculture, we have cocoa, we sell it out and buy chocolates, so the whole idea is to see how to tackle that,” Adeshokan explained.
Th e Ubiquitous city, according to him will also give priority to tourism development “With the U-city it is about creating an enabling environment and also focus on people, one of the major problem we have in Africa is that the population is growing and moving from rural to urban areas.
We have vast rural areas, natural assets which is being abandoned, even the urban area because of the pressure the little infrastructure in the urban area has gone, it is now under pressure.
“Government has been talking about tourism but the problem is that tourism is still at the raw level not developed to become a commodity.
Th e same thing we look into mining ,most of our mining products are actually being sold by artisans as raw materials so something that would have brought so much, they just sell it at peanuts .
“In Africa when we are showcasing our own tourism we focus a lot on culture, culture is good but modern tourism has moved away from that we tend to show more of our primitive life rather than going the modern tourism and we are trying to change that.
“ We are trying to come up with a project in a rural area of Abuja, Bwari area council by the Usmanu lake dam we have the beautiful lake but it is just sitting down there doing nothing we need to make it a viable tourism destination.
some times we just say tourism but we need to understand that the modern tourism is not just about people visiting it also has to be about business,” he said On the fi nancial cost of the project, Mr Adeshokan said the U-City project has no value for it because it will spread across Africa.
“But the Usuma One, in Abuja, which we are currently working on, is about $5 billion, and is one of the U-City concepts and the Madison one is another concept.
Th e Usuma One is tailored towards tourism, and it will be hosting the Commonwealth Games, and it is projected to generate $20 billion
every year to Nigeria from our projection. “Th e Madison One is tailored towards agro and mining. We have investors already from outside the country.
Th e Usuma One and Madison are projects to be completed around four years time”, he said.
Th e AU ECOSOCC, Nigerian Representative and Chairperson, Social Aff airs and Health Cluster, Dr Tunji Asaolu, in his address stated that the U-City became necessary, because the project will address a lot of economic and infrastructural challenge faced by rural people.
According to Asaolu the U-City development that would drastically reduce rural-urban migration as the infrastructure and facilities that attract them to the urban areas would be provided at their doorstep.
It focuses on Tourism, Agriculture, Mining and Human Resources development on infusion of modernity and Africa ways of life as the U-City concept will stir Africa to 21st Century growth, and the aspiration will be to sustain the Africa ways of life, which varies from one community to another, therefore every U-City concept development will be designed with huge emphasis laid on the ways of life; culture and heritage of the local community, making U-City to be unique and ubiquitous.
U-City Infrastructure U-City infrastructure will be a modern city infrastructure of global standards, with well-planned management structure to be put in place for good quality service delivery and sustainability.
Th e infrastructure includes housing, power, water supply, road networks, social amenities, transportation, communication and security.
He said: “Th e developmental nature of the African Union isa being brought into culmination with the AU ECOSOCC Nigerian chapter partnership with GRC Motorsport on the U-City development.
“Th e U-City is a global city meant to be established across the African continent with vast lands, natural resources, rich cultural assets and human resources that exist everywhere in Africa.
Th e idea of the city briefl y captioned the main objectives of the AU Agenda 2063 initiative.
“AU ECOSOCC is partnering with GRC Motorsport because its vision and aspiration is to have development all over Africa which is the central focus of the Agenda 2063, ‘Th e Africa We Want
