President Muhammadu Buhari and the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, have identified the need for economic, infrastructural and youth development to drive Lagos State to achieve a smart city status.
They spoke virtually on Tuesday at the opening session of the Ehingbeti Lagos Economic Summit 2021, themed, ‘Setting the tone for a greater Lagos’.
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Buhari expressed the determination of the federal government to support more massive investments in Lagos State to boost its economic potential as one of the world’s fastest-growing megacities.
He said, “One of the significant ways in which our support has manifested to Lagos State is in the special federal funding that we approved in 2020 in acknowledgement of the state being an epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Therefore, the challenges of Lagos must be clearly seen as part of the challenges of Nigeria,” Buhari noted.
The president also urged stakeholders at the event to come up with ideas and plans to achieve ‘Lagos of our dreams.’
On her part, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala advised the Lagos State Government to go beyond roads to investing in technology, embrace artificial intelligence and digital economy. Other indices to consider include sustainable electricity supply, renewable energy and harnessing youths’ potentials.
President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina described the youths as assets for the state and as such, should be given a chance.
“Youths are not the problem of Lagos, they are the asset. The slogan should not be ‘the young shall grow’, but ‘the youths have arrived’. Youths do not need empowerment or hand-outs, what they need is investment. A prosperous Lagos will bring a healthier Lagos.”
Adesina also said the private sector should be mobilised to support the new Lagos. “The taxes of the people belong to the people. There must be accountability for taxes collected.”
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in his address, disclosed that the race to digitise every community in Lagos had begun with the ongoing laying of 6,000-kilometre fibre optic infrastructure across the city.
He said the Smart City agenda would fully materialise by 2030 when the entire landscape of Lagos would have been covered by a network of fibre optics.
The move, the Governor said, is to leverage technology to revolutionise business culture in Lagos by energising Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that form the backbone of the State economy.
He said: “I invite every well-meaning Nigerian to join me to look ahead at the next decade, and the possibilities that lie ahead for Lagos. What will Lagos State look like by 2030? There will be a city-wide network of colour-coded Metro Lines, the first two of which – Red and Blue lines – will move over 34.5 million people monthly, cutting travel time by over 250 per cent.
“In 2030, Lagos will proudly stand beside every other megacity in the world, in terms of its capacity to transport its people efficiently and responsively.”
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