LFZ: Lagos invests $4b in infrastructure

The Lagos State Government on Monday said the net value of infrastructure at the Lekki Free Zone stood at $4 billion.
Rotimi Ogunleye, the state Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, disclosed this in Alausa at the ongoing ministerial briefing to commemorate Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s second year in office.
Ogunleye said 116 investors had so far registered with the LFZ, out of which 16 had commenced full operations.
He said the state government had in the last two years released N698.47 million as part of the state’s equity contribution to the joint venture.
Ogunleye said: “This is part of the effort to ensure speedy development of the zone and honour the state’s obligation on counterpart funding of the project.”
Ogunleye said the state had also disbursed N740.46 million as compensation to communities affected by the LFZ project.
The commissioner said the LFZ remained a landmark industrial project for the state government.
According to Ogunleye, plans are underway to deliver a new industrial policy for enhanced industrial landscape in the state.
He said that the ministry was in partnership with UNIDO to prepare the all-encompassing industrial policy to replace the obsolete policy of 1985.
According to Ogunleye, the ministry has entered into a technical cooperation agreement with UNIDO through its Investment Technology Promotion Office toward establishing a fashion and shoe hub at Gberigbe Enterprise Zone in Lekki.
He said that the aim was to boost and develop entrepreneurial capacities of SMEs for sustainable enterprise development and investment promotion using UNIDO methodologies.
Ogunleye said this would facilitate technology acquisition and transfer, which would lead to accelerated industrial development and economic growth.
He said the state government recently approved the establishment of an integrated Light Industrial Park in Imota in Ikorodu with full complements of warehouses, factory units, water and electricity facilities.
Ogunleye said that work was ongoing on the Agemowo Industrial Park in the Badagry division where a private investor would establish a modern auto market on 10 hectares out of the state’s hectares of land in the park.