Tinubu’s reforms on course to yield positive outcome — Sanwo-Olu

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1 year ago

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has assured the global investment community of the positive results that will come out of the economic reforms being implemented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Governor Sanwo-Olu gave this assurance on Friday in London when he featured on a live interview anchored on Sky News, a frontline British news channel, saying that President Tinubu took the “courageous step” by ending the fuel subsidy regime, which, he stressed, was a necessity to save the nation’s economy from the edge of catastrophe.

Sanwo-Olu also used the platform to highlight key areas of priority being explored by his administration to drive foreign investment into Lagos.

The governor is on a weeklong business trip to London, where he participated in various bilateral meetings, including the Lord Mayor’s Show.

The governor, who noted that though the action led to inflation, however, said the money saved had been re-invested in various interventions geared towards stabilising the economy.

According to him, these are funds that can go into other areas, such as education, health, and social investment, adding: “What he (Tinubu) brings to the table is more important, having governed Lagos before.”

Sanwo-Olu, while pleading with Nigerians to be patient with President Tinubu, further assured that they would soon feel relief as the president rolled out more interventions, pointing out that Tinubu came with a clear strategy to tackle the nation’s economic challenges.

“I believe six months is a short term to evaluate President Tinubu’s far-reaching reforms but in terms of the clear strategy and focus, the Tinubu administration is there.

“What the president has done over the last six months, none of his predecessors had the audacity to do it. He took the courage and removed subsidy on petrol, which will save the country about $2.5 billion. These are funds that can go into other areas, such as education, health, and social investment. What he brings to the table is more important, having governed Lagos before.

“The fact that the president is challenging members of his cabinet to sit up and focus on the business of governance shows his commitment.

“He said he would not hesitate to kick out non-performing ministers. What we are asking the citizens is to give the president a bit more time. He has a bold, laudable economic agenda, known as Renewed Hope.

“In the next few months, we will begin to see relief coming out from all of the interventions he has put forward and the country will be better for it,” the governor stated.

Governor Sanwo-Olu spoke about his administration’s readiness to welcome more foreign investment in key sectors of the economy to Lagos, noting that though a sub-national, remained a key player in the African economic order, with a GDP bigger than economies of Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal.

The governor, who further noted that the coastal state lacked the luxury of landmass, quickly asserted that Lagos had been a major player in service-focused investment, given its growing population and size of its market.

Governor Sanwo-Olu said conversations around the potential in which the state was endowed had not been fully told, stressing that he personally led the state’s investment drive to London in order to avail foreign investors of requisite information and clear doubts that may surround the state’s business climate.

He recalled that Lagos recently constituted the International Financial Council as an advisory board to offer sufficient information to investors about red tapes, regulatory and legal framework guiding business in the State, expressing the belief that Lagos’ narrative could be used to tell the African story, just as he pointed out that the investment drive would put the state where it should be in the global economic order.

This was just as the governor also highlighted technology, financial service sector, creative industry and consumer products as key areas of priorities the state government was expecting to expand.

“As part of our drive to promote more foreign direct investment into Lagos, we have recently constituted the International Financial Council. The whole idea is for us to be able to let the world know what is happening in Lagos, starting with the Lord Mayor’s Show held in London. This is because Lagos shares a lot of history with London.

“The International Financial Council will be setting up strategies where we can handhold British companies and investors willing to come to Lagos to invest their capital.

“The Council will avail them of the red tape, regulatory and legal framework. Investors will know what kind of permits and approvals they need to have. The Council will set up structures where communication and collaboration will be facilitated,” he said.

“The tech industry is very important. In the last four years, Lagos has become the capital of tech start-ups. The sheer number of entrants into the tech space shows that there is still a lot of depth we need to bring into the technology sector.

“Building capability in the technology space will help us drive and improve the financial service sector, where we have a whole lot of financial products that need to be deepened.

“We want to see a lot more international financial organisations coming to the sector. We want to have the creative industry also be a key player in Lagos economy. Then, of course, General Consumer products.

“Because of the size of our population, we believe any investor can have a share of the market. Lagos does not have the luxury of land for extensive farming, but we are very well in other business areas because of the size of population and nature of services people need,” he added.

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