 Hello, this is the Greater Lagos vision and I'm your host, Love Ikuku Oyeduku. It's been over two years of changing lagos. Governor Babaji Desawoli has been working to transform the state into a more livable mega city where people come to do business. Across the state, from roads to housing delivery, upgrading of schools, urban renewal and rehabilitating health care facilities, there is a proof of his commitment. Recently, the multi-purpose Cow Park and Facility building are only converse commissions. This is an affirmation of the governor's resolve to ensure the completion of all inherited projects. This is the Greater Lagos vision. Welcome once again. This episode features infrastructure. Governor Sauronlu Commission's only-call multi-purpose building prized edifices on economic development. Lagos Investors Roundtable, no less than $15 billion required to meet infrastructure needs. Good governance, Sauronlu wins New Telegraph Governor of the Year 2021 award, promises to take governance to the highest level. On Saturday, Lagos State Government calls for strategic repositioning of cultural heritage. These are many more when we return. As part of measures to extend development across Lagos and grow the economy through a robust infrastructure portfolio, the Lagos State Government has commissioned the multi-purpose Cow Park and building Atuniko. The edifice, according to Governor Sauronlu, will not only speak to all the traffic issues but also ensure an ambience needed in that area. Reconstruction began in June 2013, during the tenure of now-Minister of Works and Housing, Baba Tudi Fashula, then Governor of Lagos State. It is now completed and commissioned by Governor Baba Judis Sauronlu, an affirmation and attestation to his Resolve to ensure completion of all inherited projects that fit into his film's agenda. In addition to the parking floors that we have, we have a floor dedicated for social engagements. We have two banquet halls, one in which we are in now, will accommodate easily 800 people. While the second one here on my right is to accommodate 600 people for banquet halls and also seminar use. In addition, we have a space on this side for a private exclusive clubhouse. Governor Sauronlu is convinced that with the commissioning of the multi-purpose Onikon Cow Park and facility building, traffic gridlock would become history in that area. It used to be a place where nobody could get into and so you can see that indeed our government has converted a liability onto our assets and I think we deserve a round of applause for that. And so all around here, you also see a lot of social activities and social clubs that have been here for decades. From Island Club, to Robert Tennis Club, to the Lagos Lone Club, to King George the Fifth Park, to the police area command zone two here, of course to the museum kitchen that is right next to us, but more importantly to the edifice that we're bringing right across you, which is the J. Randu Center for Eurobar and African culture. These are facilities that are in this neighborhood and we're sure that this multi-level Cow Park will speak to all of the traffic issues and all of the social integration that needs to happen around here and so that you can see that this is well conceived, is well thought out and it will help and reduce all of the gridlocks that usually happen around this place. This edifice that has over 384 parking lots that has seating capacity for over 1400 people will ensure that not only is free flow of traffic, but will also ensure that there can be an ambience that is needed in this entire neighborhood. Special advisor to Somwulu and works in infrastructure, engineer Aramidi Adeoyi said the edifice would extend development across Lagos and grow the economy of the state. In a city such as Lagos, scarcity of land is an issue, hence the multi-story Cow Park which utilizes vertical space provides an ideal solution to overcome horizontal space constraints and regulate better traffic flow. In deciding to do this, we also realize that this facility building is significantly important because of its large size parking capacity, income generation potential, and its location strategically within the heart of Onikon. Its judicious use will no doubt help absorb vehicles that would have otherwise parked on the roadside and other illegal parking spaces along the corridor with its attendant negative impact on traffic flow. They also highlighted the scope of works for the project. Five levels of parking floors with a capacity of 384 vehicles with offices for tickets and restrooms on each floor. The sixth floor is designated as multi-purpose mixed use consisting of a clubhouse of about four and ten square meters capacity. This provides additional recreation facilities for this area that has both Island Club and the Uyber Tennis Club at close proximity. The Adeyoye strongly believes another revenue for job opportunities has just been created with the commissioning of the facility, providing an aesthetically pleasing environment and more reportedly complimenting the state's efforts around tourism infrastructure within the precinct of Onikon. Legoset Govno Babagide Sawonlu has presented a budget proposal of 1.388 trillion Naira to the State House of Assembly for approval for the 2022 fiscal year. Here are some highlights of the budget estimates. The Legoset House of Assembly was filled with state executive council members, lawmakers, judges and traditional rulers who came to hear Govno Babagide Sawonlu present his 2022 budget proposal. For time came for the Govno to take to stand and presented a spending plan that is 138 billion Naira more than that of 2021. I'm privileged to be presenting to you today the year 2022 budget proposal which will have tap the budget of consolidation. For good reasons, as I noted earlier, 2022 will be the final full year budget limitation for the next general election in 2023. It is therefore an excellent opportunity for us to consolidate on what we have done so far and ensure that every effort, every investment, every partnership, every policy is translating maximally into a lucrative positive impact in the lives of our people. The challenging environment also requires that we focus our intervention in areas of the biggest social impact, achieving the greatest good for the greatest normal in the shortest possible time. He targetted the budget of consolidation. 564.9 billion Naira was budgeted for a current expenditure while 823.5 billion will be spent on capital projects. The budget size is more than analyzed as the current expenditure of what we said at 564.9 billion video and the capital expenditure of 59.6 billion at 823.35 billion. The deficit financing will be by way of combination external and domestic loans and bonds which will be within our fiscal sustainability parameters. We have clearly articulated our vision in tackling governance in the state through our teams agenda and our comments the state 30 year development plan 2021 to 2021 that will update and replace our previous plan which was from 2012 to 2025. This is necessary given the huge global challenges that are common for us as a people and as a nation. The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly Honourable Mother Shiru Obasa passed a vote of confidence on Kovno Babaji's own for his achievements but he gave an advice to the governor. Because it has a highest funding tax of course this loan has been steeped behind most of the infrastructure and development we all see all over the state. Never the less we advise ourselves to focus more on the tax code that will create job opportunity and reduce bottlenecks in movement that will be jailed towards animating poverty. The Speaker also called on President Mohammad Buhari to work towards reducing unemployment insecurity and poverty. Lagos 2022 spending plan is called the budget of consolidation because it is meant to help the government perfect on the gains recorded over the years. Lagos State needs no less than 15 billion dollars to meet her infrastructure needs. Governor Sowonu stated this at the thought Lagos Investors Roundtable organized where the State's Office of Sustainable Development goes SDG and investment. He said the demand is due to the rising realities of population explosion and the state's limited geographical space. Where investment roundtable was attended by foreign diplomats, members of business communities, companies of industries and members of the State Executive Council. Governor Sowonu called for partnership with investors and the private sector. He said the implementation of the development strategies of his administration demands partnership and contributions of private investors. In education, we have creative budget financing and we're scaling up our investment in education using the private sector. We're scaling up our investment in rapid emergency services in our fire engines and all of these with the private sector. These are areas in which government usually struggles to be able to raise the funding for but because of how we've been able to creatively utilize our balance sheet, we are getting the private sector that are joining us to raise the required funding for some of these critical areas of our government. While assuring investors that Lagos State is open and ready for investments, innovation and collaboration, Governor Sowonu assured investors and private partners that the state government will create and namely policies and environment for them to thrive in Lagos. And of course what you expect from this investment, you expect guaranteed reasonable return and this are some of the things that I want to assure you. This is where as government we can come in and will certainly will come in to create the enabling environment, the right policies and the overall structure to ensure that you continue to strive and thrive in Lagos for your investment to be safe, to be secure and to be innovative and continue to excel. Indeed, we have a huge responsibility to develop critical, hard and soft infrastructure that can act as catalysts for what you do invest in. Just couple of weeks ago too, the SA, SGD were also at an investment round table talking about the green bombs and Lagos trying to also lead in conversations in that area. These are climate funds that are available that other cities are using so Lagos needs to be able to position itself to be able to also access innovative creative bonds like what the green bonds will have and what people are using to be able to develop resilient cities like the one we have in Lagos. Not only are we doing this, we'll also continue to do more and we'll also ensure that we continue to improve on our public transparency, improve on our fiscal discipline and on our depth of sustainability. We cannot just keep a lip service today. Any investor, any serious investor needs to know or wants to hear you that what are you doing with your depth of sustainability? How well are you disciplined with your fiscal issues and how well are you transparently running your government? Our performance speaks for himself. That's why FICH rating, recently an international rating agency, increased not only on our bond but also on our sustainability, increased us to a triple A plus, you know, as a subnational, as a subnational, you know, and I'm sure it's also because of the kind of things that we're doing. Speaking earlier, the special advisor to Governor Sao Wulu on Sustainable Development Goals, SDG and Investment, Sholakbe Harmond said the round table was part of shared aspiration towards making Lagos the most preferred investment destination in the world. Shiriya assured investors about the Babaji De Sao Wulu administration's determination to institute business-friendly environment and measures to boost investors' confidence and guarantee trust. As the world continues to acknowledge Lagos as a regional, financial, and commercial hub, this administration has and will continue to demonstrate commitment to reinforcing this position by strengthening regulatory frameworks, improving internal security, providing necessary infrastructure, reducing administrative bottlenecks and all that we can do to ensure that we enable business processes. Lagos is recognized as an investor haven for many reasons. Lagos is estimated to contribute 30% of the GDP or more of Nigeria and account for more than 50% of normal production GDP. Governor Sao Wulu during the event launched the Lagos Deal Book, which is a compodium of investment opportunities across the state as well as information about incentives for making the investment and the processes for doing so. Lagos generates approximately 13,000 metric tons of solid waste daily and to achieve the level of efficiency required in managing waste in a city of this size, the private sector must be front and center while the government focuses on regulation and support by way of infrastructure and technical capacity. This was a submission of Lagos State Governor Pao Pao Sao Wulu at the Nordic Nigeria Connect High-Powered Conference on Smart City Solutions and Circular Economy held in Lagos. These two events engaged Nigerian and Nordic private public stakeholders on smart and green city solutions for Lagos. The focus is on how to develop a circular and smart economy with a specific focus on waste management, green energy and transportation. Governor Pao Pao Sao Wulu listed some of the efforts being made by his government for our greener Lagos. The private sector participation, which are largely citizen focus, you know, so what we've done is indeed we'll make investment in areas that we're used to support the PSPs which are facing, you know, the general public. By building new transport loading stations for this agency and we're also wrapping up existing composite facilities where renewing our waste management fleet and we're assisting a private sector with fleet renewal as we go along. Sao Wulu also spoke on the wealth creation potential of waste. Following the huge investment we have made in waste management sector as well as the transformation of our waste management practices over the last two years, we have been able to create no fewer than 40,000 direct and indirect jobs within that period. Furthermore, with the advent of recycling and other waste management streams, we envision that we will also be creating additional 6,000 jobs annually. I think Lagos said deserve a small round of applause for that, but we're still seeing a huge opportunity coming out from there. Ultimately, seeking innovative solutions to our challenges will start with seeing ourselves more and more at the 21st century mega city, a smart city that is playing on a global stage with similar cities from around the world. The governor also helped on the need for a change of mindset among the populace, new habits regarding use and reuse and the immense possibilities of recycling. Very importantly, we have also realized that beyond just infrastructure, a mindset change amongst our populace needs to take a new dimension. And by this means, I mean introducing to our people a new way of thinking about waste and a new habit regarding the use and the reuse and immense opportunity for recycling of our waste. For those who know Lagos and Nigeria well, we know that we are heavy users of plastic materials. So there's a lot of work that's ahead of us in terms of educating our public about the responsibility and responsible use of disposal of plastic to cite one example. So Loma has therefore been actively involved in redefining his remit, expanding beyond the conventional waste management oversight to sending and building a thriving waste economy and the state. This brings to me the creation, the wealth creation potential that this over 13,000 metric tons of waste on a daily business has. Deputy Minister of International Trade Nina Vasculati told the Gadrin that her first priority is on making the COVID-19 vaccine available to everyone. Until everybody is safe. That I think is the first priority for all of us to make the world a better and a safer place to live and to work and to co-create together. This is my first trip to Africa since the start of the pandemic. It's not a coincidence that this first trip is to Lagos and Nigeria. This has been in the works for a long time. As mentioned by the Governor Lagos, it's a business powerhouse of Nigeria, the largest economy on the African continent. Lagos has roughly the population of the five Nordic countries combined together, 20-something million. But very, or most importantly, Lagos is taking giant steps in becoming a smart city. Mr. Governor, let me already at this point congratulate you on that. The term smart city is widely used and often very broadly interpreted. However, I would like to define it like this. It is use of scientific methods, data and technology to improve the life of citizens, developing the city in line, sustainable development goals that we have all agreed upon. Becoming a smart requires transformation. Nigerian economist, entrepreneur and philanthropist Tony Illumelu in his presentation commanded the forum for creating the avenue for entrepreneurs to interact with each other. I think having this approach, I call it the entrepreneurship approach to development. It's very good. You're bringing your business leaders to this place, they're interacting with our business people, they are working together and interacting and seeing how they can do more in the area that you identified are very important to drive our development in a sustainable fashion. So it's good. And final message is to the public sector, you know, you need the donor organizations, donor agencies, development partners to do, to support. You need entrepreneurs to do what they know how to do, how to do what they know how to do. And most importantly, government to create a living environment. So when Legal State Governor was speaking, I was talking about, you know, it says so much and, you know, the soft infrastructure, the hard infrastructure, the broadband connectivity, all of these things will make a difference. And so my message to our public sector leaders, those like Legal State Governor and government that's doing the right thing, let's keep doing more, let's continue, let's keep the right environment for our young ones to succeed so that what the development partners are doing is not wasted. One of the take-homes from the conference is that Legals is open for collaboration and investment. Well, that's all we have for you in this episode of the Greater Legals vision on PLUS TV Africa. I'm Lovie Kuku Oyiduku. Bye for now.