The Chairman of Abeokuta North Local Government Dr Lanre Oyegbola-Sodipo has embarked on a city-to-city engagement with cities in the United States of America. The engagement began with the Office of the Mayor of Boston on Wednesday, January 22, 2025 at the office Mayor Michelle Wu where Dr Lanre Oyegbola-Sodipo met with the economic and development team of the office of the mayor led by Mr. Segun Idowu the Chief Economic Opportunity and Inclusion officer.
The meeting afforded the chairman the opportunity to pitch Abeokuta as a city ready for both businesses, cultural and learning exchanges between Boston and Abeokuta. Highlighting that Abeokuta is the educational capital of Nigeria aside it’s proximity to Lagos and the fact that Abeokuta North is 70% arable land fit for agriculture and can be a net producer of cassava.
At the meeting, Mr. Idowu mentioned that Dr Oyegbola-Sodipo would be the first Nigerian to have visited the office of the mayor with such a proposition though there have been conversations with representatives of other African cities.
He expressed his interest and joy seeing that a city in Nigeria would finally be on the consideration map for exchange programme and opportunities available within the larger sister-city framework, and where jointly as governments, the benefits of city-to-city conversations and memorandum of understanding that can bring policymakers, entrepreneurs, and international businesses together to promote economic growth and development can begin.
Further into the meeting, the possibilities of setting up wider consolations and engagements with the largest black community in Boston was discussed. Mr. Idowu believes that this would put the local government in contact with willing and proven investors, venture capital and entrepreneurs, stating that Boston is a preferred city with perhaps the largest assembly of these persons and interests because of its uniqueness and strong educational and inventive leanings.
At the meeting were Yuxi Wang the International Business Strategy Manager for the City of Boston office of the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, USA and James Reginald Colimon, Deputy Director of Global Affairs & Protocol Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity & Inclusion.
