AU ECOSCC, GRC Motorsport partner to build U-city across states

….project to bridge infrastrucral deficit

By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA- FOLLOWING infrastructural deficit in Africa, the African Union Economic Social and Cultural Council, AU ECOSOCC, Nigerian Chapter, and GRC Motorsport have partnered to build Ubiquitous- City, U-City, for rural people in Nigeria.

The move was unveiled at a media briefing on Thursday in Abuja, were the Nigerian Representative and Chairperson, AU ECOSOCC Nigeria, 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. The infrastructure includes housing, power, water supply, road networks, social amenities, transportation, communication and security.

He said: “The 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.

“The 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. The idea of the city briefly 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, ‘The Africa We Want’.

“The project is targeted at creating rural urbanisation living across rural Africa. The project has identified some of the key issues that are contributing to the development across Africa and some commodity-export sectors that can be adopted to make each city self-reliant with its own independent economy.

“This will help reverse the rural-urban migration that has been a burden to Africa’s development, thereby achieving the United Nations Sustain development Goals, SDGs that would have an impact on improving the quality of life of local communities.

“The aspiration of U-City concept is to bring urban development, quality living and integrated economic sectors to all parts of Africa, which will greatly improve the quality of life, social activities, job creation and economic stability for the people across Africa.”

In his remarks Chief Executive Officer, GCR Motorsport, Mr Ribi Adeshokan, explained that the following infrastructural deficit in the country, particularly the rural areas and government alone cannot provide the needed infrastructure promoted the U-City concept to bridge the infrastructural gap, which they do not necessarily depend on government rather carry the rural people along and give them a sense of belonging and not to displace or relocate them from their original home, but would also be part of the city.

“The infrastructural deficit is very high in the country. We have challenge of infrastructure in rural areas, the African population is growing and the pressure on areas and its facilities are being over stressed due to rural-urban migration.

“This is why we want to urbanise the rural areas, which is the concept of U-City to reverse the rural-urban migration. Lagos State for instance because of the 21 million people there it has now put pressure on development. U-City is a concept to be self-reliant and generate its own economy and also to move away from oil.

“The best way to achieve this is to look at the commodities in that area, which will attract investors. Like in agriculture the country is blessed with vast arable lands. The structure deficit is still there and all the efforts government has been making has not been able to achieve the maximal goal and part of it is the bottleneck of doing business, which the government is working on”, Adeshokan stated.

According to him 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. The 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.

“The Madison One is tailored towards agro and mining. We have investors already from outside the country. The Usoma One and Madison are projects to be completed around four years time”, he said.

 

The post AU ECOSCC, GRC Motorsport partner to build U-city across states appeared first on Vanguard News.