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Tuesday, 02 December, 2008 03:38 am
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| Lagos government seeks N275 billion bond for infrastructure develepoment |
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| Sunday, 03 August 2008 | ||||||
     Fashola told a gathering of eminent bankers at this year's Banker's Nite at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, that the bond would enable the State Government to increase its capacity to deliver infrastructure that would support business in Lagos. Fashola said his administration's decision to invest massively in infrastructural development was based on the realization that although the population of the city was spiraling, there was no corresponding growth in the economy of the State due largely to lack of infrastructure. Describing the decision as a well thought-out, prudently conceived and consultation-based one, Fashola, who said Lagos has a 30-year infrastructure deficit, declared, "We realized that if it becomes difficult to move goods, services and people from one end of the city to the other, Lagos cannot be said to be a favoured investment destination". "It was the same roads that served the State since 1975 that were still there. It is the same shopping malls. Tejuosho was built in the seventies and so was Falomo. The number of schools did not increase. The number of hospitals did not increase, the number of football fields remained the same", the Governor lamented, adding, "Therefore, we realized that roads must work, waterways must work and rail transportation must and will work in Lagos". According to the Governor, the population of Lagos is both an asset and a liability, and that population generates 9,000 metric tones of waste daily, more than the quantity generated by the whole of Ghana", adding that even though Lagos was a favoured investment destination, investors would soon look the other way if there were no adequate infrastructure. The Governor said that the Government was also conscious that without oil income, Lagos was accounting for 50 per cent of the GDP of Nigeria and that Lagos was also the locomotive that drove the country's economy. "The only way that economy will continue to thrive is if it is able to support humanity, support business and support investment. An investor is looking for returns on investment and for there to be investment returns, there must be competitiveness, prices must beappropriate", Fashola said, adding that all these would only be possible with adequate infrastructure. Governor Fashola thanked the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Joseph Sanusi who was also present at the occasion, for the supportive role he played as the then CBN Governor to midwife the process for the State Government's first bond, expressing delight that it was a very successful bond which has now been retired. The Governor expressed the hope that the new bond would be concluded as soon as possible to enable the State Government. "To go on and do our own part of the business". On security of investment in the State, Fashola who announced that the Government would re-launch its Security Trust on Monday, August 4 2008 said government needed the partnership of the private sector to provide security infrastructure that would support their capacity to continue doing business in the State. "I think it will not be an over-statement to say that the incidents of bank robbery in the last one year have progressively reduced. We can make it a thing of the past if we can join our hands together to do it", he said.  Quote this article on your site | Print | E-mail
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