Sanwo-Olu: Lagos Will Continue to Ensure Mutually Beneficial Relationships with Financial Institutions

•Says media practitioners should be given privileges, rights to work without hindrances 

•Inaugurates 15 school projects

Segun James

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday said his administration would continue to ensure a mutually beneficial relationship with financial institutions in the State.

Sanwo-Olu made the statement when the new management of Heritage Bank led by its Managing Director, Mr. Akinola George-Taylor, paid him a courtesy visit at the Lagos House, Ikeja.

The governor said his administration was poised to do more as it continued to play its roles in providing an enabling environment, improving the ease of doing business and being forward-looking in its dealings with financial institutions.

He said: “Lagos is the Centre of Excellence and the commercial, economic nerve centre, so we cannot but ensure that we have a very forward-looking mutually beneficial relationship with all of our financial institutions and of course, Heritage Bank is not an exception.

“I want to implore you and your team to be intentional and think something fresh; think something different that can indeed stimulate us. You can rest assured that we know how important it is to spread our businesses and to ensure that everybody gets a part of it knowing that you and your staff will also have a corporate responsibility on the Personal Income Tax component. It is expected that we will continue to play our roles and play our parts.”  

Sanwo-Olu congratulated the Managing Director and his new team on the huge and great responsibilities that shareholders and other stakeholders in Heritage Bank have reposed in them. 

“I wish you the very best. On behalf of the Lagos State Government, we thank you for your validation of your endorsement of our government because it is a period of endorsement.

“We get endorsements on a daily basis. The endorsement of our government is saying that we are doing a good job and we are encouraged to do more. We are humble with those words and it will encourage us to do a lot more,” he said.   

Speaking earlier, George-Taylor, commended the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration in Lagos State and wished the governor well as the 2023 general elections approach.

He said the bank would continue to increase the wallet of its business transactions with the Lagos State Government.

“We are here to introduce ourselves as the new management of the Heritage Bank and being that we have had a relationship with the state (Lagos) for a number of years now, we felt it was necessary to come and present ourselves to the Governor; to say thanks for the business that we enjoyed with the government and that we align and commend the great work he is doing for Lagos State,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sanwo-Olu has described media as one of the real engines of growth and a real barometer that gauges the mood of the nation and helps to stabilise the polity of any sovereign country.

In addition, he said press freedom was an important ingredient of any civilised democracy, noting that media practitioners in Nigeria should be given the rights and privileges to do their jobs without any hindrances.

According to a statement, Sanwo-Olu said these during a courtesy visit by the Board of Trustees of Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA) led by its Chairman, Dr. Haroun Adamu, at the Lagos House Marina, on Tuesday.

The governor who commended the role of the media in Nigeria said media practitioners should be recognised and encouraged to continue to perform their roles in society.

He said: “Press freedom is an important ingredient of any civilised democracy. The profession is noble and very sacred. It must also be given the rights and privileges to do its job. People must be able to continue to know that there is somebody that would be the voice for the voiceless.

“Media practitioners should continue to deploy their skills and intellect to check people in authority, speak truth to power and use their training and intellect to direct leadership to ensure that we are not in a banana republic.

“Personally, I see the media profession as one of the real engines of growth. I see them as a real barometer that gauges the mood of the nation and helps to stabilise the polity of any sovereign nation.

“I am sure Nigeria is not an exemption. You can see and measure where the country is based on what the media is saying. And if people have donated their time and intellect to be the voice for the voiceless, I think it is proper that such people should be recognised and be encouraged to continue to do that.”

Sanwo-Olu, who praised the NMMA for appreciating media practitioners and their works in Nigeria, assured the organisation that Lagos State government would support the 30th anniversary of the award.

 Speaking earlier, Adamu, said the choice of Lagos to celebrate 30 years anniversary of the awards in November was not accidental, noting that, “Lagos is the birth place of Nigeria’s struggle for press freedom from which all other freedoms emanate.”

He said Sanwo-Olu during the 30th anniversary of the NMMA would unveil the Nigeria Media Merit Award Alumni Association, which comprised over 1,000 past winners in the print and electronic media categories on NMMA in the last 30 years. 

In the meantime, Sanwo-Olu yesterday inaugurated 15 junior and senior secondary schools projects across all the six education districts of the state virtually.

The virtual inauguration which was done at the premises of the Lagos Television, (LTV 8), Ikeja, Lagos was attended by teachers, students, market men and women and various stakeholders.

 The governor also unveiled a compendium detailing the infrastructural transformation that public schools in the State have undergone since 2019.

 The 15 virtually commissioned schools were: Junior Model College, Meiran, Alimisho, Baptist Secondary School, Orile-agege, Abesan Senior High School, Orisunbare Senior High School, Luwasa Senior High School, Ijede, Girls Junior Model College Agunfoye, Ojota Junior Secondary School, Ojota, Eva Adelaja Junior Secondary School, Bariga, Muslim Junior College Oworoshoki and Model College, Badore.

Others were: Model College, Agbowa Epe, Araromi Ilogbo Junior Secondary School, Oko-afo, Badagry Junior Grammar School, Badagry, Ajumoni Junior Grammar School, Daleko Mushin and St. Joseph Secondary School, Mushin.

 To accelerate and actualise the core vision of revamping schools’ infrastructure in the state, the governor had inaugurated a Special Committee on the Rehabilitation of Public Schools in Lagos State (SCRPS), on November 4, 2019.

 According to him, “Our project dashboard shows that we have so far delivered 1,047 new classrooms, 181,365 pieces of dual composite furniture, 1,592 new hostel beds in our Model Colleges, equipped with laundromat facilities and comfortable Reading Areas.

 “In addition, we have completed rehabilitation projects in 197 schools – translating to a total of about 2,280 classrooms so far,

 “We have equally focused on the provision of modern recreational facilities in our schools, to ensure the total development of our students, in line with best practice from around the world. We want them to simultaneously learn, play and keep fit, in the best five and most conducive environment possible. This is the only way to prepare them for the future.”

“No part of Lagos State has been left out of our interventions, as you will see from the Compendium. We are determined to ensure equitable distribution of the dividends of democracy in Lagos State,” Sanwo-Olu stated.

In her welcome address, the State Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folasade Adefisayo said the inauguration of the projects was another giant step in the transformation of schools by the governor across the state.