Lagos State Is Ready To Collaborate With Foreign Investors – Commissioner
L-R: Special Adviser on Environment, Mr. Olakunle Rotimi-Akodu; Research Associate, Jing Song; Hon Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tokunbo Wahab; Managing Director, Lekki Free Zone, Mr Zhang Bin; Representative of Foreign Economic Cooperation Office, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, China, Dr. Wang Zuguang; and Managing Director/CEO, Global Impact, Dr. Babatunde Osho, during a business Meeting on the 13th of December, 2023, with the Honourable Commissioner for The Environment and Water Resources, at the Ministry’s Conference room, Alausa Ikeja.
Lagos State Government has expressed readiness to collaborate with foreign investors to boost the state economic situation.
The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr Tokunbo Wahab, disclosed this a statement after a business meeting with officials of the Lekki Free Zone at Alausa, Ikeja.
Wahab said that the present administration was committed to increasing business opportunities in every part of the state.
He noted that the state had invested massively in the Lekki Free Zone corridor with the full awareness that the part of the State is the future of Nigeria.
He emphasized that Lagos State is the only State in the Country with a clear cut climate change attributing it to the coastal nature of the city affected by rising sea levels.
He said that the state recently launched the phase II of the Lagos Climate Resilience and Adaptation policy, adding that the launch demonstrated the readiness of the State in combating climate change Issues.
Wahab said that the State was open to partnership and investment in the waste management value chain comprising solid and liquid waste and other opportunities in the environment space.
Wahab mentioned some local /rural areas where investment could be activated to benefit the communities and thereby change the narrative and enhance commitment to development in these areas.
“It is not enough to have the commitment on paper; if you have the approach and desire to lift 50,000 households on solar belt out of the National grid and put them under this policy, this portrays commitment” Wahab said.
The Commissioner said that the state government has ramped up physical infrastructure in the Lekki Free Zone highlighting road infrastructure from Akodo to Epe, Abraham Adesanya and free trade zone areas.
In his response the Managing Director Lekki Free Zone Development Company Mr. Zhang Bin, said his organisation and his country China was ready to support Lagos develop climate change initiatives in the Lekki Free Zone area.
Bin said that they were willing to share ⁰knowledge, find out needs of government for solar belt programmes in the communities around the free zone while also assisting with capacity building as well as improve power supply and livelihood of people in Africa.
