Wema Bank releases N221m to Lagos Judiciary

Wema Bank Plc. has granted Lagos Archives and Property Litigation Registry (LAPLR) a project finance facility of N201 million.
This is in addition to N20 million which it doled out to support the Lagos State government and Justice Research Institute Ltd. to deliver a world-class archiving service aimed at transforming record management in the Lagos State High Court.
The bank explained in a statement that as part of efforts to address the deteriorating state of the Lagos High Court archives, the Lagos State Judiciary and the Justice Research Institute Ltd., a private limited liability company, partnered to create a joint venture, the Lagos Archives and Property Litigation Registry (LAPLR).
Its Managing Director , Mr. Segun Oloketuyi, while speaking at the launch of the archives at the Lagos State High Court recently, noted that Wema Bank identified the need to have a credible source of information on land and property that are subject to litigation in Lagos State, hence the bank’s decision to support the project.
“We lent our support in two ways; Corporate Social Responsibility was part of the financing, it wasn’t just loan,” Oloketuyi said. “Even the loan was given at an extremely low interest rate and long tenor to ensure the repayment is easy. We did this as a push for the company handling this project, in partnership with the Lagos judiciary, on the need to create value, an opportunity presented by this project.”
The Wema Bank boss noted that when the project was conceived and the bank was contacted for financing, “we contributed some ideas which were also brought into the picture to ensure the success of the project.”
Oloketuyi, who heads a bank that has become extremely active in the digital space in recent years, has always been an advocate of digitization.
He expects LAPLR to embrace same.
“I believe to save space, improve security and be in tune with global best practices, the next step will be to digitalize the records. That way, anyone who needs information can access it from the comfort of their offices,” he said.