We’re planning more support for business growth- Sanwo-Olu

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu says he remains committed to the growth of enterprise in Lagos through the implementation of more business-friendly policies and investment in infrastructure.

Sanwo-Olu gave the assurance at an interactive session with members of the organised private sector (OPS), Monday, in Lagos, where he spoke of his economic redistribution plan to expand the Lagos business district to suburbs in the western and eastern parts of the state.

The dialogue was part of the strategic stakeholder engagements to keep business leaders abreast of the economic policies of Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Sanwo-Olu, who is seeking a re-election in the 2023 elections.

At the event which had Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing; Ben Akabueze, the director-general of Budget Office of the Federation, among others in attendance, Sanwo-Olu said the growth being recorded by the state economy was a testimony to the efficient supervision and accountability process instituted in the management of the public finances.

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According to Sanwo-Olu, in promoting rapid economic growth, his administration had embarked on improving mobility by injecting funds to deliver an integrated mass transit system. Asides road rehabilitation across the state, the governor said his government had also boosted productivity by expanding transport infrastructure, investing in rail and opening waterways.

“Our economic blueprint captured in the six-pillar THEMES Agenda has been rolled out and implemented in manner to fix the immediate needs of our citizens and the business community. In transportation and traffic management, we have intervened in almost a thousand roads and built new ones of length of 125 kilometres. We activated ferry services to quickly move people at business hours. We have injected ferries of different capacities, just as we open new jetties.

“We have also shored up capacity in public transportation by providing 3,000 vehicles to service our mass transit network and taxi scheme. Lagos is about to have two fully operational rail lines to encourage mass movement. We embarked on all of this in order to give commuters mobility options, thereby reducing man-hour spent by people in traffic and raising productivity to support business growth,” he said.

“We have seen the completion of Lekki Deep Sea Port which Lagos is a major facilitator. In the next two month, the logistics infrastructure will be fully operational and this will have a good revenue projection for the state,” the governor added.

On his part, Fashola said the complex nature of governance in Lagos had thrown up a system that usually produced administrators who are problem solvers, rather than politicians giving excuses.