The Commissioner for Commerce, Cooperatives, Trade and Investment, Mrs Folashade Ambrose-Medebem, and her Innovation, Science and Technology counterpart, Mr Tunbosun Alake, made this plea at the ongoing 2024 US-Africa Business Summit in Dallas, Texas, United States.
The duo expressed the state’s readiness to partner with any investors with a strong assurance that the government will provide a conducive and friendly business environment for predictable returns on their investments.
The representatives made the commitment to international investors on Tuesday during the panel session on African Infrastructure Investment: Impacts and Returns.
The high-profile summit is hosted by Corporate Council Africa and brings together political and business leaders from across Africa, the US, and other regions for high-level dialogue and networking in Dallas Texas, US.
Both Mrs Ambrose-Medebem and Mr Alake expressed Lagos’s readiness for business and its openness for new investments by showcasing the state’s potential.
Mrs Ambrose-Medebem assured the business community that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration in Lagos State has created an enabling environment for investments and businesses to grow in the state in the past five years.
She noted that the commercial capital of Nigeria was focused on infrastructure as an investable asset, globally and how African countries can benefit from over $30 billion Fund being set aside by the US and some partner nations through identified financial instruments.
She said Lagos has a huge population of over 25 million people, stressing that more than 60 per cent of the population is youth, adding that Governor Sanwo-Olu and his administration have invested in critical infrastructure projects such as rail, water, health and housing.
“There is Blue line rail in Lagos State that takes approximately 500,000 people per day. There is another red rail line that was just commissioned and will start commercial operations very soon. The new Red Line rail service will move close to 1 million Lagosians daily when it commences operation. The Lagos State Government has provided a lot of infrastructure for businesses to thrive in the state.
“We have done a lot in the areas of health, education, technology, and many other sectors. For agriculture, over 200 hectares of land has been allocated to build the largest food hub infrastructure in the eastern part of the State. In addition, we also have the Lekki Deep Sea Port, which is about a $1.53 million investment. Lagos is open for business and investments,” she said.
Also speaking, Mr Alake said: “Over the past three and a half years, about $3 billion worth of investment has come into Lagos with high numbers of start-ups and scale-ups in the continent. So, Lagos has a sheer number of start-ups, the largest startup network in the continent.
“Investments that have come to Lagos over the past three years have created networks of unicorns and high scale up to the combined value of $5 billion and this has created thousands of jobs for young people.
“Lagos State Government has also done projects from a Public-Private partnership (PPP) perspective, and one of them is the 3,000 kilometres of fibre cables that we have done on a PPP basis,” he noted.