Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Wednesday said his administration will continue to ensure a mutually beneficial relationship with financial institutions in the State.
Governor 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.”
Governor 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, the Managing Director of Heritage Bank, Mr. Akinola 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.
“And of course as bankers, we want to try and increase our own size of the wallet of the business that we do with the government and to extend our best wishes to him and his government. It was a courtesy call to say thank you and wish him well in the next coming elections,” he said.
In another development, Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Wednesday inaugurated new infrastructure projects in 15 junior and senior secondary schools, across all the six education districts of the State.
The inauguration which was done virtually at 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 experienced since 2019.
The 15 virtually commissioned schoils are: 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 are: 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 actualize the core vision of revamping schools’ infrastructure in the State, Governor Sanwo-Olu inaugurated a Special Committee on the Rehabilitation of Public Schools in Lagos State (SCRPS), on November 4, 2019.
Sanwo-Olu disclosed, “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 5 and most conducive environment possible. This is the only way to prepare them for the future.”
The Governor explained that in line with THEMES agenda, Education and Technology are one of the cardinal points which his administration focus on in our THEMES Agenda, as you all know.
In his words, “Our focus on education is predicated on several complementary interventions, including physical infrastructure, technology, teacher and student welfare, and the reduction of the number of out-of-school children in the State.
“One of the more recent and visible highlights of our efforts in Lagos is the fact that our State Universities did not suffer the disruptions occasioned by the recent strike action that affected many other public Universities in the country.
“Since the inauguration of the SCRPS, we have been able to start and complete several new building projects (classrooms, hostels, security infrastructure like fencing and gate-houses, and so on), and supplied new furniture for students and teachers. We have also successfully embarked on several rehabilitation projects.
“In addition, very importantly, we have completed and commissioned a fully-IT-driven school at Vetland Junior, with three interactive digital screens and student tablets, to facilitate learning in and out of school.
“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.
While commending the Governor for his passion for education sector, Adefisayo added that, “This is a wonderful journey and there is a lot to be done.”
