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Lagos On Course Despite Global Meltdown - LASG

Jun 27, 2009 - The Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Barrister Opeyemi Bamidele at the weekend identified the adoption of multi-lateral, participatory and people centered strategies of economic planning and policy implementation as strategies with which the Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) led administration has excelled despite the global economic meltdown.

According to the Commissioner, who spoke as the Guest Lecturer and Special Guest of Honour at the Annual MBA Seminar Series of Lagos State University, Ojo said the focus, foresight and proactive planning on the part of the state government significantly reduced the impact of the meltdown on the state.

Barrister Bamidele who spoke on the theme - Lagos Megacity and the Global Economic Meltdown: Problems, Perspectives and Prospects said that the state’s annual budgets of 2008 and 2009 respectively placed less emphasis on the revenue accruing from the federation account which was limited to 25 percent of the financial outlay while about 75 percent of the state revenue is internally generated.

“The policy helped to strengthen the drive to improve the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of Lagos State which is presently estimated at N14 billion per month”, Barrister Bamidele said.

The Commissioner also noted that the Government ever before the advent of the global economic crisis, had disciplined the state expenditure majorly focusing on capital projects than un-productive recurrent expenditure in a 60 to 40 ratio.

He pointed out that the overriding motive of the budgetary policy was to ensure that the fundamentals of the Lagos Megacity economy are strong enough to withstand the negative impacts of the crisis.

“In response to the pressures emanating from the economic downturn, which threw up the critical imperative for more disciplined,priotization of expenditure in the scheme of the state budget, the state government took some necessary measures, incidental to the proper management of the ensuing challenge which eventually paid off”, the Commissioner said.

Barrister Bamidele also said that the administration aside from these fiscal measures also ensured the sustenance of many poverty alleviation programmes as well as the massive construction and rehabilitation of infrastructure.

In his words, “despite the prevailing realities attending to the global economic recession, this administration did not shirked away from its avowed responsibility of taking good care of economically vulnerable Lagosians through laudable programmes such as free and functional education, free health care delivery, free legal assistance to the poor as well as the provision of micro finance supports to encourage small scale entrepreneurship, self -employment and self-actualization”, Bamidele stressed.

The Guest lecturer also identified the state policy towards creating an enduring partnership with the organized private sector for greater trade relations, for investment priorities and the delivery of corporate social responsibility as parts of the concerted efforts aimed at achieving its full Mega City status as the economic hub of the West African Sub region.

“The deliberate engagement of the business community by the administration of Mr.Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) through programmes such as the Lagos State Economic Summit (Ehingbeti);fifty billion Micro-finance Scheme; Lagos State Security Trust Fund ;The Safe City Project; The Lagos State Energy City; The Central Business District Development; The Eko Atlantic City Project; The Lagos Free Trade Zone Programme; The BRT Scheme among others have yielded very sustainable and lofty dividends with concomitant potentials for providing an enabling infrastructural and commercial environment that has the capacity to induce viable local and foreign investment, steady economic growth and sustainable development”, the Commissioner said.

In his address, the Vice Chancellor of the Lagos State University, Professor Lateef Akanni Hussein described the MBA Annual Seminar Series as a veritable opportunity for cross –fertilization of ideas adding that the post-graduate programme which got its full accreditation in 2008 has remained a reference point among its peers in Nigeria.

Professor Hussein added that the ivory tower which has witnessed massive transformation in the last few years interms of its graduates, accountability and transparency in both academic and non-academic endeavours is vigorously aimed at churning out graduates with leadership and entrepreneurial skills who can rub shoulders with their counterparts all over the World.

Barrister Opeyemi Bamidele was also honoured by the LASU MBA students who described him as a role model and moral agent for positive change.

The well attended lecture had in attendance the Special Adviser to the Governor on Information and Strategy-Mr.Segun Ayobolu, his counterpart in the Transport Ministry-Hon.Kayode Opeifa, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Strategy-Mrs.Ranti Odutola and other members of the body of Permanent Secretaries, members of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Chairman of Oshodi Isolo Local Government Area-Afeez Ipesa Balogun,the Senior Special Assistant on Media to the Governor,Mr Hakeem Bello, members of the academic community amongst others.