The Brook’, BusinessDay’s new head office was Tuesday commissioned by Babatunde Fashola, governor of Lagos State, who said he was impressed with the quality of entrepreneurship in the establishment.
Fashola described BusinessDay as a model in the creative harnessing of new possibilities, intellectual engagement and employment generation.
He further stated that the multi-million naira corporate head office of BusinessDay, “The Brook”, in Apapa, represents the growing confidence of the private sector in Lagos and his administration’s effort in the provision of the right environment for businesses in the state.
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He observed that investors’ confidence in Apapa was rising again, spurred by the state’s regeneration programme and the new model city plan for the area which his government is pursuing.
Under the renewal programme, the state government is targeting reconstruction of inner city roads, clearing and beatification of hitherto abandoned areas, which for long served as hideouts for criminals with the spill over negative effect on businesses and residents of Apapa.
But the governor who expressed disappointment at the long neglect of Apapa by the Federal Government which rakes in trillions of naira from the ports annually, said there was a limit to which Lagos state could go, especially regarding the hundreds of oil tankers which parked and blocked major roads into Apapa.
He added, “it seems to me that as a nation, we are bearing burdens for the wrong choice that we have made; moving petrol by road.”
Earlier in his welcome speech, Frank Aigbogun, Publisher/CEO of BusinessDay, had given insights into the new head office which he said was conceived to serve the several business segments in the company.
“The towering state-of-the-art facility, archetypal of world class media centres, the world over, symbolises the ambition of the company”, Aigbogun said.
The brief but momentous event was attended by captains of the corporate and media worlds, prominent among whom were Sam Amuka, the publisher of Vanguard Newspapers; Imo Itsueli, chairman and managing director, Dubril Oil, Nigeria; Stanley Egbochukwu, the publisher of Manufacturing Today; Foluso Phillips, the DG, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Emeka Izeze,Managing Director of the Guardian Newspapers and Funmi Onajide, General Manager Corporate Affairs, MTN.
Chuka Uroko
