REASONS WHY AMBODE DESERVES A SECOND TERM

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AgegePulse Magazine

When Governor Akinwunmi Ambode was elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress as Governor of Lagos State, there were many who wagered that he would not live up to the expectations the electorate had for a better and much more developed state.

To them, Ambode was just another new kid on the block, a political rookie, one whose adminstration they predicted would be shaped by pauses, such as the perfunctory rituals of being governor, "no motion! no movement", mediocre like, and not by visible and sustainable development. How wrong!

Today, Lagosians marvel at the breath taking pace in which development has enveloped and travelled further and faster down the nooks and crannies of the state in just less than three and a half years, this is despite the emergence of the recession which whittled down the ambitions of a number of sister states, forcing them to cut down on their development agenda, this was not so in Lagos under Ambode.

These projects and services which represent such meaningful development as well as Ambode's body language that his best is yet to come, unleashes the calls and appeals for a well deserved second term for him. Now, there is no more powerful expression of how a people evaluate the performance of a democratic office holder in government than in reelecting or in rejecting him!

So, for the cynical, that is the naysayers, the doubting Thomas's who are obviously in the wallowing minority and offer nothing but primitive notions of contestations, I would roll out the 35 reasons why Ambode deserves a second term.

No other governor has done better in terms of harnessing the human resources of the ordinary citizen than Ambode. We see this in the prompt backlog payments of arrears meant for retirees. Such backlogs which amount to the tune of 11 billion Naira constitutes a sad narrative of how governments in this part of the world treat those who gave a good part of their lives in service to their various states or the nation. These were immediately tackled by the pragmatic welfarist in Ambode resulting in their clearance. Again, the establishment of
the N25 billion Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, a fund meant to tackle the menace of unemployment in the state has so far provided loans worth more than 5 billion Naira to more than 8,000 persons since inception, and helped create more than 11,000 jobs. Now , this is not all, for while the employment fund represents a plank of Ambode's thinking, the launching of "Ready-Set-Work" , which serves as an entrepreneurial and employability training programme for graduates of the various tertiary institutions owned by the state. This other plank ensures that these graduates from any tertiary institution in Lagos has the requisite knowledge and skills required for suitable employment upon leaving school and has had more than 2,500 final year students trained since 2016.

Infrastructure, another major fulcrum of the Ambode administration has received a fillip with its seamless delivery all over the state. The list is endless but I will make out a few of these achievements here. First is the construction of over 300 local government roads across the state, a number of these roads serving as bottlenecks only a couple of years ago. Next comes the construction of a ten lane road connecting Oshodi- Murtala Mohammed Airport, a project set to be completed this December.

Ambode not only completed the Ojodu-Berger Flyover Intersection; 21 roads and two bridges with a combined stretch of 27.4 kilometers in Alimosho-Agbado-Oke-Odo area.

The remedial repair work on the section of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway between Eric Moore and Okokomaiko has been completed with work ongoing on the Okokomaiko to Badagry section. Asides these, the installation of a Skywalks Bridge to link Terminals 1 and 2 at Oshodi Bus Interchange, the redesign of Lekki-Epe Expressway to improve journey times and reduce gridlock by replacing roundabouts with traffic lights, the
construction of flyovers for Ajah and Abule-Egba areas, as well as a multiple lay-by to ease traffic congestion along the Third Mainland-Iyana-Oworo-Toll Gate Road are further testaments to Ambode's infrastructure savvy.

Securing a state like Lagos is naturally any administrator's migraine as a headache is indeed an understatement of the security challenges of a cosmopolitan Lagos.

In tackling these challenges, Ambode has not only topped his game, he has also being proactive on issues affecting the security of Lagos State.

He successfully equiped the Lagos State Police Command and the State's Rapid Reaponse Squad with crime fighting gadgets worth more than 5 billion Naira.

Amongst such equipment include three helicopters, two gun boats , 15 armoured personnel carriers , top notch vehicle radio communicators. Asides these, officers serving in Lagos have better welfare, insurance and death benefit schemes packages when compared with other sister states including the FCT.

By Comr. Jebba Hamilton
Agege, Lagos, Nigeria.

Nigeria must create 4 million jobs annually to ensure growth - Ambode

…Asks CBN to reduce lending rate on N200bn MSME fund

Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode on Saturday said for Nigeria to meet its growth ambitions and achieve full economic potential, concerted efforts must be made to create at least four million jobs annually and as well jettison policies that stifle development.

Speaking at the opening session of the 9th Annual Bankers’ Committee Retreat of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) held at Renaissance Hotel in Ikeja, Lagos, Governor Ambode said it was time for the government to review such policies that inhibit growth, and as well come up with a well-functioning low cost financial system that will work for all Nigerians.

While describing the theme of the retreat – “Improving Financial Access, Enabling Job Creation and Driving Inclusive Growth in Nigeria,” as apt, the Governor said same was at the heart of the nation’s economy and are important determinants of the country’s future prosperity, but that all hands must be on deck to create more jobs for the people and ensure 6.7 per cent annual growth rate.

He said: “To meet our growth ambitions we need jobs. Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in employment terms, from a labour force population of about 81million people, we currently have 11.5million people unemployed in Nigeria and 17million people under-employed with the total employment is around 52.6million while the working age population grows by 3.7 per cent every year. So, to make a meaningful dent on un-employment and underemployment, and to reduce poverty (which is at over 60 per cent), we need to be creating at least four million jobs per year.

“Where do banks fit into all of this? Well, the reality is if we do not have a well-functioning banking sector, all of this is not possible. Both investment and day-to-day commerce requires the intermediation of banks. And while someone outside of the formal financial sector can in some cases make a living, the reality is that incomes of the bottom of the pyramid are increased when we have better financial inclusion but we are not there yet.”

The Governor, who particularly alluded to the strategy adopted in Kenya to deepen financial inclusion, said efforts must be made to ensure low cost access to banking services especially through mobile money.

He said it was painful that mobile money had been so slow to take off in Nigeria despite huge population, saying it remained very low, increasing from just 0.7million adults in 2014 to 0.9million in 2016, despite the fact that there were about 58.2million people who actually had mobile phones in 2016.

Besides, Governor Ambode challenged the CBN, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Commission (NDIC), commercial banks and other players in the financial system to decide the type of financial system that will really impact on employment and bring more people into the formal financial system.

According to him, “This is where we should focus as a nation not the type of directives or decisions that actually try to stifle growth and commerce. One clear example is this; as a State Government, I want to take a commercial loan from the bank and they tell me I should go and get a letter from Debt Management Office (DMO); I should get approval from the Federal Ministry of Finance; I should go to CBN and so on. Who does that?

“You want to accelerate growth and everything that I am doing even when I take loan from the bank; when I do bond and so on, I am only trying to reflate the economy. Each construction site that you see in Lagos, I am trying to create employment at the lower level so that the artisans, the bricklayers and so on can go home with N5,000. I need to do something in Badagry to make the people stay there and not come to the central Lagos and when you take the extra money outside the IGR, you are actually trying to help the economy to reflate itself and that is why you are able to excite yourself with the growth that you have seen in the third quarter that we say is 1.5 but that is not the number that we want.

“So sometimes, government seems to shoot itself in the leg. Why should Lagos State go and be meeting DMO to say I want to take a commercial loan when 80 per cent of my IGR can pay the loan itself back? So, you see that there is some sense of homogeneity in the policies that we make but sometimes they are not really flexible and you end up coming back to say we want to create jobs but the things that create jobs are the things that we are actually working against and you create unnecessary competition in the system.”

Responding to earlier comment by the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele on the inability of the Micro Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) to access the N200billion fund earmarked for them, Governor Ambode said the easiest way to achieve same was to reduce the lending rate to about five per cent or lower.

He said at the State level, his administration created the Employment Trust Fund through which about N10billion had been disbursed to the MSMEs at five per cent with over 6,000 benefiting so far, saying the CBN could replicate such at the federal level for the overall benefit of the people and the system.

Ambode presents certificates to 1,500 retrained Artisans, Traders

…Orders MDAs To Engage Informal Sector In Executing Govt Projects, Contracts

 ...Vows Continuous Implementation Of Policies To Advance Sector

Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode on Thursday presented certificates to 1,500 artisans and traders in the State who were retrained on modular employability programme as part of efforts to scale up the informal sector with the view to making members meet up with current realities.

The beneficiaries drawn from various associations under the auspices of the Lagos State Council of Tradesmen and Artisans (LASCOTA), were solely trained by the State Government for enhanced productivity in a total of twenty-four trades including entrepreneurship, computer appreciation, writing business proposals, among others.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony and 8th Tradesmen and Artisans Day held at De Blue Roof, LTV 8 Compound in Ikeja, Governor Ambode said the role of artisans and traders in the pyramid of socio-economic development of the nation was very critical in achieving sustainable growth and overall prosperity of the people.

He said it was in recognition of such fact that his administration had shown commitment towards ensuring that the event was not only sustained eight years after, but also designed to be more rewarding.

Governor Ambode, who recalled various initiatives designed to scale up the informal sector such as the N25billion Employment Trust Fund (ETF), among others, assured traders and artisans in the State that government would continue to implement strategies and programmes to promote their businesses and create conducive environment for their operation.

He said: “Giving the strategic role of the informal sector in our economic development in this State, our administration has opened an online portal designed to facilitate interaction among artisans, customers/end-users and relevant stakeholders.

“It is our primary role to make it easy and convenient for people in need of high quality service to meet reliable, trusted and verifiable service providers. It is also aimed at enhancing the productivity, competitiveness, creativity and vitality of this sector.”

While expressing excitement with the fact that it was the tailors from the State that produced the academic gowns used for the graduation, the Governor said moving forward, the State Government would now start to officially engage traders and artisans on jobs that would improve their economy.

Speaking on specific requests made by LACOSTA, the Governor said: “As a start, we instruct the Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment to see the capabilities and the opportunities that we can spread out from State jobs and contracts and give to our artisans.

“I am very happy to note that we have graduates among you and also graduates who are also your children. So, we hereby create an immediate opportunity through your associations to be able to recruit into key areas in the public service where we can need your services. These are not political promises, we keep our promises and we will fulfil all our promises,” Governor Ambode said.

While congratulating the artisans and traders for successfully undergoing the training, the Governor urged them to put all they have learnt to effective practice, and leverage on the endless opportunities of the strategic position of Lagos as one of the fastest growing economies in the world to be solution providers, just as he assured that the State Government would continue to provide and maintain the required infrastructure and conducive environment for businesses to thrive.

Besides, Governor Ambode launched a compendium of artisans in the State to boost the informal sector, and also inaugurated operational bus donated to LACOSTA by the State Government.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Mr Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti said since the last edition of the event, Governor Ambode, as requested by LACOSTA, had already approved N12million annual subvention to the association and increased the number of beneficiaries in 2017 to 1500 from the 500 that were trained in 2016.

Also, LACOSTA President, Alhaji Nurudeen Buhari commended Governor Ambode for keeping his promise of scaling up the informal sector and prioritizing the interest of artisans and traders in the State. He said as promised by the Governor, many of their members have benefited from the ETF loan, among other fulfilled promises.