“We have set up templates for partnership with local and international business”, he says
Lagos State governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, Tuesday, canvassed for closer economic integration between the City of Lagos and the City of London, saying it is the most viable means to grow the economies of both Nigeria and Britain.
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Governor Fashola, who spoke at Lagos House, Marina, while playing host to the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Mr. Alderman Michael Bear, who led a trade delegation to the state, said the challenge now facing the leadership of the two cities was how to close the cracks in the already existing integration, and how to put that opportunity to economic use for the mutual benefit of the two countries.
He noted, with joy, the intermix between the people of both countries, especially as demonstrated in the trade delegation from the City of London which included more than two London-based Nigerians, saying the development was making it “increasingly difficult to discern who are truly the indigenous people.”?? ?
According to Governor Fashola, “This is, perhaps, the biggest objective that we can set as an agenda for meeting today – how to use that opportunity to create jobs for people who seek legitimate employment, to reduce crime, to enforce the law and make democracy meaningful for the people.
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?“It is a challenge of leadership, but I can see that your delegation and my team can deliver on the challenge. We have come to see challenges as harbingers of intrinsic opportunities for doing greater things; things that are driven by imagination and commitment”, the Governor said, and expressed confidence that the meeting would provide opportunities that would be beneficial to both parties.
The Lagos State Government, Fashola said, had set up a template where businesses, locally and internationally, could partner with it now in building some of the needed infrastructure, adding that one of the topical issues on its agenda was providing mass housing in the state.
He told the Lord Mayor, “One of the topical issues on our agenda today is housing delivery in Lagos on a sustainable manner where people can pay for mortgages over a sustainable period, a mortgage payment that is tied to the quality of their work and to their employment.
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“It is a mortgage system that frees up the desperate conditions of seeking to buy homes in one fell swoop and these are for us the building blocks to reduction in crime, to reduction in desperation, to increasing opportunities for employment in the value chain that exists in the construction industry”, Governor Fashola said adding that in terms of regeneration, the infrastructure of the State needs a very massive upgrade and a huge jolt to make it responsive to the needs of our people.”
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Other areas where opportunities exist for partnership, according to Fashola, were in providing more water supplies, building water works, building waste water treatment plants, providing electricity to major installations like the Lekki Free Trade Zone and providing telecom support “in a commercially rewarding way”.
“We are working very hard to eliminate those constraints to business growth and business development, enforcing law and order, promoting very commercially responsive dispute resolution mechanisms in arbitration, empowering the courts, and building more magistrate courts,” he said.
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