Governor Akinwumi Ambode has expressed delight at the emergence of Lagos state as the fifth largest economy in Africa.
The governor said his administration is in the process of setting up an Economic Management Team made up of distinguished individuals from the private sector and the public sector to manage and scale up the successes recorded in that direction.
Ambode was speaking when he received a delegation from the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce who were on a courtesy visit to the Lagos House, Ikeja.
“Very soon we would be setting up what we would refer to as an Economic Management Team to drive the fifth largest economy,” he said.
“That’s the way we need to envision ourself, and this Economic Management Team will involve nominees from the Chambers and other people in the private sector, so that we can collaborate because majorly this economy is driven by the private sector.
“Our duty is to create an enabling environment and fuse all that together, I think that synergy can just catapult Lagos into that global city state that we want it to be,” Ambode added.
The Governor noted that his decision to create the Office of Overseas Affairs and Investment, otherwise known as Lagos Global, was to encourage investment in Lagos both from within and outside, among many other initiatives of the present administration.
He said: “I think it is very instructive to clearly state that the economy of Lagos is in the hands of the private sector and beyond the fact that Lagos is now the fifth largest economy in Africa, the drive to take Nigeria out of recession actually resides in the private sector and willingness on the part of the public sector.
“Because our economy is in the hands of the private sector and we are willing to allow them drive it, that is why we have decided to formulate policies and decisions that will make the private sector to thrive in this State and that is why in the last 18 months, we have been running this administration on a tripod of security, job opportunities and infrastructure development.”
Leader of the delegation, Dapo Adelegan, congratulated Governor Ambode on the emergence of Lagos as the fifth largest economy in Africa, adding that with the development, it was now important to globalize the economy of Lagos.
He said the Chamber would be willing to partner with the Lagos State Government not only to globalize the economy of the State, but also in the area of policy formulation, among other critical sectors.
Adelegan also announced the decision of the Chamber to inaugurate Governor Ambode as one of the patrons of the Chamber.