Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (right) with the President, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote (left) during his courtesy visit to the Governor at the Lagos House, Ikeja.
Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode on Wednesday hosted the
President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote on a visit, giving a
commitment that the present administration is willing and ready to
make investors have a comfortable business profile in the State.
The Governor who spoke at the Lagos House, Ikeja added that the
administration is ready to support the Dangote Group where it is
necessary towards ensuring that investors have a comfortable life.
“I will just call on other investors that wherever it is that we can
assist we are willing and ready to make sure that investors have
comfortable life and comfortable business profile in Lagos State”, the
Governor said in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary,
Habib Aruna.
The Governor, who described the visit as very significant, promised
that his administration would open up the State for greater business
just as it is also interested in attracting foreign investors through
its creation of an Office of Overseas Affairs and Investment.
“This visit is highly significant. We said it that we are going to
open up Lagos State for greater business and we also said we are
interested in bringing in foreign investors and also create an Office
of Overseas Affairs and Investment”, he also said.
“This visit is symbolic in the sense that the bottom line is creating
jobs for our youths and he has shown full commitment as a great
Nigerian that he is interested in investing in any part of this
country. But most significantly in Lagos state and we are ready to
support him and support all his businesses because he is adding
value”.
“I will just call on other investors that wherever it is that we can
assist, we are willing and ready to make sure that investors have
comfortable life and comfortable business profile in Lagos state and
once again I want to thank you for being here”, he said.
The Governor also thanked the Dangote Group President for donating
N400 Million through the Dangote Foundation to 2,000 women in each of
the 20 Local Governments in the State towards assisting in improving
their businesses.
Addressing Government House Correspondents shortly after the meeting,
Alhaji Dangote said he and his team were at the Lagos House to
congratulate Governor Ambode on his victory at the poll as well as his
swearing in as the 14th Chief Executive Officer of the state.
The frontline business mogul said the visit also afforded him the
opportunity to assure the Governor of his commitment to finish ongoing
projects currently being embarked upon by his company as well as his
continued support to initiatives geared towards securing lives and
properties.
“I’ve assured him that we really love doing business here, it’s a
friendly state for doing business and also to assure him of all the
projects that we are doing that we are on course; that is building the
largest ever single refinery of 650,000 barrels per day, which is by
far more than the consumption of Nigeria and that would satisfy our
consumption at least for the next seven to ten years by the time we
finish”.
“Also, we are building the largest fertilizer plant of two to three
million tonnes of Uranium and Amonia also in the Lekki Free Trade Zone
and assure him that we are going to do a Gas Pipeline from Bonny to
under the sea, in which when we finish, Lagos state will never ever
experience blackout, there would be electricity 24 hours a day”.
“There are quite a lot of things that would come along with, that
would create so many jobs. I think Lagos will be one of the fastest
growing cities in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. I can assure you that
we would do our own bit in terms of your efforts in policing Lagos,
for security and whatever the need is, feel free to call us, we would
partner with you and whatever you want us to do to make Lagos a better
place”.
“It’s not a small project. We would have challenge in getting people
to work there, because at the height of it, we would have almost close
to 38,000 people working at the same location, this is something that
we have to partner with the state government. Having 38,000 people on
one site, not every one of them will be from the community, others
will be from other states, there would be cultural issues and all
that, we need to integrate everybody to ensure that the whole thing
work out fine,” he said.