Chinwendu Obienyi
The Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, has declared that the state would be Africa’s model megacity by 2025. Speaking to a gathering of captains of industry and top government officials at a programme tagged, “Lagos Means Business”, Ambode said his government will continue to work towards exploring the economic potential of the state in order to meet the needs of its citizens.
He said the challenges of the state are huge and demand a strategic and proactive approach, adding that the administration was focused on the power, education and transport sectors as a way of affecting other sectors of the society indirectly.
According to him, “taxable adults in Lagos are eight million out of which only 700,000 pay taxes. This is very sad but we will tax those who are rich so as to protect them and also look after the poor as well. That is what property tax, which law was enacted in 2002 is saying. After 17 years, the law had not been reviewed.”
The governor maintained that Lagos needs structured corporate social responsibility targeted at initiatives that would be mutually beneficial to private sector and government, adding that the government will continue to support the private sector.
Ambode thereafter called on the private sector to drive infrastructure funding in the state, noting that it would drive the much needed growth and the state’s vision to become the third megacity in Africa.
“We want to encourage all sectors to thrive because Lagos State has the market and we are confident in the justice sector reforms, security reforms. We are ready and so there is a need for infrastructure funding that should be driven by the private sector in conjunction with us. We don’t want to run it the way we are running the security trust fund; there should be an infrastructure fund driven by the private sector to actually attack what is going on.