Lagos State Government on Wednesday expressed its readiness to collaborate with foreign investors to boost economic vibrance in the state.
The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr Tokunbo Wahab, disclosed this in 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 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 environmental 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 commit 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 of Lekki Free Zone Development Company Mr. Zhang Bin, said his organisation and his country China were ready to support Lagos in developing climate change initiatives in the Lekki Free Zone area.
Bin said that they were willing to share knowledge and find out the needs of the government for solar belt programmes in the communities around the free zone while also assisting with capacity building
as well as improve the power supply and livelihood of people in Africa.
