The Executive Governor of Lagos State Gover, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has explained the significance of economic development to the progress of the Lagos metropolis.
Sanwo-Olu gave the explanation at the Africa Investment Forum (AIF) in Marrakech, Morocco, with the theme: “Leveraging Cities and Municipalities for National Development.”
According to the governor, more people would migrate to Lagos from other regions of Nigeria every time Lagos made strides in its development. He claimed that unchecked migration causes the state’s population to keep growing, placing excessive stress on its infrastructure and services.
He said: “Economic sustainability is a critical indicator to measure progress of a city, so that people can know that they are in a city where resources need to be used effectively. The strength of the city is about economic development. Africa is the resource centre of the world due to the abundance of youth energy domiciled in the continent. I am delighted to see African cities coming together for peering and evaluation of development indices. We need to get the youth engaged and create opportunities to guarantee their future.”
The Governor also outlined how his administration has increased public planning’s effort by two-fold in a bid to fully utilize the state’s demographic potential.
He said: “In the last five years, the progress we have seen in Lagos is reflecting in the changing skyline of the State today. We have changed the development trajectory of Lagos; we have been able to complete an intra city rail infrastructure. This has raised the State’s capability by ensuring our citizens move effectively in a more predictable time. We designed a six-pillar economic agenda that enable us prioritize Transportation and Traffic Management and face the challenges head-on. We have been able to achieve a lot in this regard, with Lagos having an integrated mass transportation system, which uses waterways, rail and bus rapid system.
“We engaged our energetic young people to develop a unified payment system called Cowry Card to be used across our mass transportation means. This is making the city a lot more functional, liveable and resilient.”
