The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has expressed his administration’s commitment to partner with the World Bank Group in the areas of energy, agriculture, tourism and human capital development, among others.
He said Lagos State is ready to do more to attract investments and partnerships that will improve the living standard of the residents, adding that the State Government will do what is necessary to receive more support from the World Bank to improve its infrastructure.
Governor Sanwo-Olu spoke on Sunday during a courtesy visit by World Bank Group team led by its Managing Director (Operations), Anna Bjerde, and International Finance Corporation (IFC) Regional Vice President for Africa, Mr. Ethiopia Tafara, at Lagos House, Marina.
Speaking during the courtesy visit, Governor Sanwo-Olu read out achievements of his administration in the last six years through the delivery of the THEMES+ developmental agenda, which has impacted millions of Lagos residents positively.
Governor Sanwo-Olu disclosed that Lagos was 29th in Ease of Doing Business index, based on a national ranking four years ago, but last year Lagos moved to the first position because the state doubled her performance in everything it does.
Speaking earlier, the leader of the World Bank Group delegation, Anna Bjerde, said they would like to work with the Lagos State Government because what the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration is doing in Lagos is demonstrative of the national solution.
She said there has been a lot of stability in the economy through the reforms of the current administration in the fact that Lagos is a major stakeholder on the World Bank dashboard even as a subnational.
“Nigeria has been very consistent. Policies haven’t been changing much, and that is helping predictability, especially for investors. We like the government’s effort on Ease of Doing Business and cutting off the red tape,” she said.
Bjerde said the World Bank Group wants to do a five-year country review in Nigeria to see where the country and Lagos are compared to where they were five years ago.
She said World Bank Group is ready to leverage the capacity of Lagos to improve the private sector financing model for all its interventions, particularly in areas of infrastructural development, energy, agriculture, tourism and human capital development.
