Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu said that infrastructure development is key to maximising the economic potential and growth of any state or country.
Speaking through the Deputy Governor, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat who received the visiting Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission on behalf of the Governor today in his Office, at the RoundHouse, Alausa, Ikeja, noted that the state has kept thinking of investing massively on its infrastructure for economic potential.
The Governor said, “Infrastructure is the only way to maximise the economic potential of the country which is why Lagos has taken it as a priority to build its infrastructure for the betterment of its citizens.
“Infrastructure is essential to the development of African countries, there is a need to educate Africans on the need to raise funds for investment that will better the lives of its citizens”, he added.
Accordingly, Sanwo-Olu believed that there is a need to educate citizens on raising capital to develop the country as Africans seem not to like debt, saying “That is why I think that we have a huge responsibility to fund capital investment in the country, by encouraging state actors not to be scared from taking constructive debt to leapfrog opportunities that will grow the economy”.
He said the state government would not have been able to provide some infrastructural facilities in the state today if it had not been able to access loans needed to put such facilities in place.
Earlier in his remarks, the Director-General of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Uguda stated that the purpose of his visit to Lagos was to inform the government of the plan to host the West-Africa Market Conference in the state being organised by the West-Africa Security Regulator Association.
He said, “The conference with the theme: ‘Infrastructure Deficit and Sustainable Financing in an Integrated West Africa Capital Market’, will attract experts across the sub-region to deliberate on the need to tackle the infrastructure deficit for the economic growth of the sub-region.
He added that the commission decided to bring the conference to Lagos to highlight the need for infrastructure development in the sub-region and showcase what the state government has been able to do in this regard as the commercial nerve centre of the nation which they believe other states within the federation and the sub-region can emulate.
The Director-General further expressed the readiness of the commission to collaborate with the state government in curbing illicit business by some unscrupulous people who scam people of their hard-earned money.