Barely three months after his trip to Japan in company of President Muhammadu Buhari, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has embarked on another Asian trip aimed at scaling up Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and bilateral partnership.
The governor is on a working visit to China – the world’s second largest economy – to sign partnerships and agreements that will support Lagos State’s efforts in transforming its economy to be 21st Century compliant.
Sanwo-Olu will be meeting the top management teams of China Railway Construction Company (CRCC) and China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) for a joint appraisal of ongoing projects being handled in Lagos by the Chinese construction giants.
In the course of the visit, Sanwo-Olu will be making a keynote speech at the China-Africa Business Council, which aims at putting Lagos before the Chinese investment community and declare the State’s openness to foreign investments.
The governor’s economic ambassadorial role will be taking him to Zhuhai Changiong Ocean Park, Huawei, GAC Motor Factory and Green Air Conditioning for talks on partnerships in industry, tourism and facility development.
Since its inception, the Sanwo-Olu administration has stepped up efforts for investments in infrastructure, renewable energy, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and transportation.
Read also: Sanwo-Olu secures Chinese investor’s commitment to set up in Lagos
The governor has been unequivocal about his quest for both local and foreign finance to transform the State’s economy through sustained investments in infrastructure.
While presenting the N1.1 trillion 2020 budget penultimate week, he noted that Lagos had revised its approval procedures and extant laws to promote Public-Private Partnership.
These efforts have yielded fruits, given the recent release by the World Bank, which praised Lagos as “significant contributor” to Nigeria’s impressive performance in the Ease of Doing Business Index. Nigeria moved 15 places higher in the ranking.
Lagos and China have strengthened their bilateral relations since the inception of Sanwo-Olu’s administration. Recently, the governor witnessed the signing of four agreements with China Development Bank (CDB), including the $629 million financing facility to accelerate completion of the Lekki Deep Seaport project, which started in 2011 and will be completed in 30 months.
The loan was secured from the Chinese bank after China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), which owns majority shares in the project, signed a 45-year concessionary agreement with Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited (LPLTZ) to complete Phase 1 of Nigeria’s first deep seaport in Lekki – a coastal community in the nation’s commercial nerve-centre – Lagos State.
The deep seaport will have two container berths of 680-metre long and 16.5-metre water depth. It will also have the capacity to berth fifth generation container ships, which has a capacity of 18,000 TEU cargoes.
Commenting on the development, Sanwo-Olu described it as “another milestone” for the State in infrastructural development and commerce, saying the signing of the agreements ended the uncertainty that had trailed the delivery of the project.
