The Lagos State Government has assured residents of Badagry of its readiness to promote tourism and empowerment in the area through effective use of the Employment Trust Fund, ETF, strategies.
The Special Adviser to Governor on Communities and Communications, Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan said this during the monthly interactive meeting organized by the Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs for the Community Development Committee, CDCs and Neighbourhood Watch security outfit with other stakeholders across the State which was held in Badagry Division.
Bamigbetan noted that Badagry should be a goldmine to tap from by all residents in the area, adding that the government was committed to making Badagry axis the next destination for tourism.
He said it was now very clear that Nigeria could not continue to rely on crude oil alone for survival, adding that “this is a country of over 180 million people and Lagos alone has over 22 million people and every day we all engaged in one tourism or the other.
“We can use our environment to bring in tourists by encouraging our children who had grown up in such an environment like this to know the history of communities, this will make it easy for them to become tour guys. It will also be easy for the people in Badagry to become tour operators because that was their natural habitat.
“If we look around, we would all see that Badagry is blessed and surrounded with water, we want to shift at least 30 percent of the traffic that is currently on the road to waters, and make it easy for people to move freely from Lagos-Island to Badagry on water,” he added.
He disclosed that the state government had acquired boats and ferries that would improve the transportation system.
Bamigbetan stated further that the present administration was determined to drive the ETF differently by making it an all-inclusive programme and a multi-layer system which placed premium on adding values to the unemployed.
“Lagos State Government is coming up with the Employment Trust Fund by November, and ready to give out N6.2 billion worth of loans to Lagosians only payable at 5 percent, the programme will reduce unemployment rate and thereby promote traditional and social entrepreneurship in the State,” he said.
Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Community Development Affairs, Alhaji Tajudeen Quadri noted that the interactive meeting was part of the present administration’s reform which was introduced by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
He said that the governor realized that all the community members were to be reckoned with in governance, which was why there was a kind of innovation in the way things were being done now in the State by ensuring that all the CDCs and Community Development Associations were carried along in his government.
The representative for the Commander, Area ‘K’ Command, Mr. Dazumi Seidu asked residents to help the police in fighting crime by reporting criminal activities in their various localities.
He urged everyone who had a vital information that would help the operation of the Police in the area to be effective to ensure that they passed such detailed information to the Police.
Seidu stressed the need for people to get close to the police, adding that: “working together with us will help us close in on the criminals because the people know the hoodlums more.”
