Lagos 30-year Dev’t Plan key to boost investors’ confidence —Sanwo-Olu’s SA, Hammond
By Moses Adeniyi
As discussions gather around the unveiling of the awaited Lagos State Development Plan 2052, spanning a period of 30 years, the Special Adviser to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Investments, Mrs. Solape Hammond, has said such long term plan would serve as a compass to boost investments in the State.
According to her, among others, the essence of such plans economically is to lay the framework for a favourable business environment within which investors can make projections and reliably take investment decisions.
Hammond who spoke while featuring in an interview with TVC Business Nigeria programme, monitored by our correspondent, said the plan would serve as a strategic roadmap for investors whose compass of decision are usually anchored on certainty based on policy directions, adding that it is a benchmark also for accountability.
“It sounds a little bit big, but it’s really not big for a city like Lagos. It’s good to have a longer term plan because what investors want is certainty. They want to know where we are going.
“What we are doing is putting a plan for all of us to know, and it’s something that also makes government more accountable. When everybody knows this plan and everybody has been part of the plan, so you dare not default from the plan because we have all signed up to it,” she said.
Stating the last long term plan was 13 years, she said the 30 years plan is well within scope to step ahead above subsisting standard.
“We are looking at longer term investment. The African Union Plan is 2063. It was a 50-year plan, so if Lagos is doing a 30-year plan, it’s very aligned,” Hammond said.
On the pillars of the plan for a thriving economy, with emphasis on infrastructure, shipping, export hub, transportation, energy, technology, creative sector, food and beverages, she said, “We are trying to build a human-centric city. Lagos is great and still a very much work in progress.
“Dear people, in that 30 years plan, the aim is to make Lagos a city where you go from where you live to where you work within 30 minutes. That really is the target because we know it’s important for quality of live.”
She added that emphasis on education for talent and capacity building are key components of the government’s focus.
Speaking on the performance of the State’s economy, amidst global challenges, Hammond said, “By and large, Lagos has continued to do incredibly well and the government for me, because of the kinds of investments over the years, we’ve been able to be at the front and centre of bringing in investments.
“The port is dragging in investments; the free zones is bringing in investments; it’s us enabling businesses and also catalyzing businesses, and we are looking to do more of that which you would see in the plan.
“When we know what people are doing and people know what we are doing, it becomes a lot easier to come together to create and co-create,” she said.
“Lagos has built capacity over time in being efficient and identifying better ways of providing services,” Hammond added.
She emphasized that taxation was important in as much as the Government utilises same for development courses.
“We have to pay taxes but every one wants their taxes for something good for them. We, on our part, it is to find better ways to deliver services, so it’s also right for you to pay,” she said.
On the performance of the N1.7 trillion Lagos 2022 budget, she said the record of about 85 per cent performance was within good evaluation limit.
“We are not very far off in spite of the global economy”, she said, mentioning that “we’ve tried to be a lot disciplined: we plan, we think and there’s been a lot of robust support from the private sector.”
According to her, the discussion of the plan would be a centre focus at the 9th Economic Summit of the State – Ehingbeti, slated for 11th – 12th.
On the master plan and its connectivity with Ehingbeti, she said, “As long as Ehingbeti remains, Lagos will be prosperous, as long as we do commerce, Lagos will be prosperous.”
According to her, the platform has generated policy actions, regulations and interventions on such subjects as Land Use, Taxes, Bus Reform Policy, Transport Master Plan, Lekki Ikoyi Bridge, among others, which have vitalised business environment in the State.”
She mentioned that as a platform for engagement between the government and the business stakeholders, Ehingbeti has recorded good turn on the part of the former with about 95 per cent implementation of the agreements reached through the platform.
On participation for the 2022 Ehingbeti stakeholders forum, she said with the number of registrations so far, about 100,000 participants may be keying in for this year’s edition.
She identified sectors of opportunities where attention would be focused on to include food and beverages, manufacturing, agriculture and security, energy, real estate, healthcare, and tourism, among others.
On opportunities, she said “Bulding up anything in Lagos can be business; education is business; health is business; everything is business, because the numbers are here, the buying power relatively is here, the opportunity is here.
“Government doesn’t succeed when people don’t participate. This plan and conversation is for all of us. We want our people to be part of planning; we want our people to be part of executing; we want our people to pay their taxes; we want our people to hold us accountable; we want our people to work with us every step on the way because to realise these opportunities, we need every single one of us. Lagos is opportunity calling, be part of it,” Hammond said.
Recall that the disclosure of the blueprint for another 30-year journey in pursuit of physical development, social growth and economic prosperity, was made known by Governor Sanwo-Olu in June, 2022.
While speaking on the plan to business leaders and the organised private sector at an interactive meeting, Sanwo-Olu had said the Lagos State Development Plan 2052, will be officially rolled out at the 9th Economic Summit of the State – Ehingbeti.
The 30-year plan, according to him, was developed with clear objectives from four strategic dimensions aimed at positioning the state to achieve its vision.
Speaking on the 2022 Lagos Economic Summit known as ‘Ehingbeti’ to deliberate on the paths to sustainable socioeconomic growth of Lagos, the State’s Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Samuel Egube, had hinted that Lagos State is looking at a sustainable Public-Private Participation (PPP) model for its development agenda.
On the stride of the Governor Sanwo-Olu led Administration in over three years of governance, Hammond said that the Government, despite challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and global economic melt down, have touched on every single pillar of the Administration’s policy thrust – the THEMES age.nda.
“In spite of several unexpected circumstances, Lagos has been able to innovate on our feat, being the centre of innovation for Africa. A lot has been done in terms of traffic management, road infrastructure, and rail infrastructure,” she said.
Hammond said in addition to road infrastructure, leveraging the benefit of rail and water-ways where the State has a comparative advantage, is an important strategy the Government has employed to cushion the strains of road transport amidst huge population with limited landmass.
“We are moving on all of those fronts. Apart from fixing the roads, we have tried to do interventions around the traffic gridlock points and coming in, we identified 48 gridlock points and we’ve worked on all of them,” Hammond said.
Some of the achievements on transportation she pointed out, include bus schemes including the First and Last Mile Bus schemes, Taxi schemes, junction improvement projects, Red and Blue line rail scheduled for commissioning end of 2022; water transportation interventions, among others.
