Lagos State Government and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have initiated the process of exploring various investment opportunities in the State that are mutually beneficial to both governments.
The decision was taken at a meeting by the representatives of the Lagos State Government led by the Commissioner for Commerce, Cooperatives, Trade & Investment (MCCTI), Mrs. Folashade Ambrose-Medebem and the Consul General of UAE, His Excellency, Dr. Abdulla Almandoos, held at the Consulate General office, Lagos today.
Speaking at the meeting, Ambrose-Medebem expressed that the Lagos State Government, through her Ministry, is irreversibly committed to driving economic growth and prosperity, promoting trade and strengthening the Organised Private Sector along with MSMEs, Nano enterprises and women businesses.
Her words: “The various ongoing mega projects running into multi-billion naira investments in Rail transportation, Fourth Mainland Bridge, Lagos Food Logistics Hub, Lagos Film City and others are poised to accelerate the growth of Lagos. These will also open more opportunities for investors and our goal is to enhance the ease of doing business to encourage more Domestic Direct Investments and Foreign Direct Investments.
“The fast growth of Lagos would also require ambitious investment in ICT to boost its status as home to unicorns, along with huge potentials waiting to be exploited in power, health, environment, housing, transportation and other sectors, of which the UAE can take advantage with expected high returns on investments”, she said.
Consul General of UAE in Lagos, His Excellency, Dr. Abdulla Almandoos opined that the Emirate is interested in what it can do with Lagos, particularly on how to bring money from Dubai into the State and how that can be deployed for the benefit of each other.
In his words, “We have been receiving requests from many interested investors from Dubai and we will be glad to know what opportunities Lagos has to offer investors and what areas of knowledge or investments can be promoted between the State and the Emirate”.
The two parties agreed to further the discussion with concrete sharing of information that would ignite direct investment inflow from Dubai into Lagos.
