Macron invites Buhari to Africa-France Summit

The President of France, Emmanuel Macron has invited President Muhammadu Buhari to the Africa-France Summit scheduled for June 2020 in Bordeaux.

This was revealed by Secretary General, Africa-France Summit, Stephanie Rivoal, when she visited the Minister of Foreign Affairs,Geoffrey Onyeama, on Tuesday in Abuja.

According to her, the summit themed “Sustainable Cities” was aimed at helping African countries resolve the rural-urban drift among other challenges bedevilling the continent.

She said Nigeria is expected to showcase its projects that have been proven to work at the two-day summit for all stakeholders involved in the development of cities.

She also pointed that it was the wish of Macron for Nigeria’s president to attend the summit because of the importance of Nigeria in the continent.

Rivoal also said that the summit, unlike every other summit is expected to provide concrete solutions to the challenges facing cities in Africa.

“I will appreciate it if President Buhari will come with a delegation of people involved in city development.” She stressed that the summit wanted to provide a forum in which “ministers share ideas with one another on concrete solutions to development of cities.”

“Stakeholders will be there to look at what is the best for the people that live in those cities. Besides, there will be concrete commitments by stakeholders and this will be followed up at the end of the summit,” she said.

She alo noted that issues like how to ensure access to health, water, power and the rest will be discussed and also ways to make the rural areas more attractive to the people so as to curb rural-urban drift. T

his she said is why the summit would be hosted in Bordeaux instead of the bigger city, Paris.

The grand finale will be a football match between the World Champions, France, and the winners of the 2019 African Cup of Nations taking place in Egypt in June.

Appreciating the invitation, Onyeama said Nigeria would love to be part of the summit.

The minister said it was very important for Africa to manage growth and make the continent lively adding that it was something every society really had to address as cities were becoming a challenge.

According to him, President Buhari is looking at how rural-urban drift can be curbed.

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