The Lagos State government has expressed readiness to collaborate with foreign investors to boost economic activities in the state.

The commissioner for environment and water resources, Tokunbo Wahab, said this in a statement after a business meeting with officials of the Lekki Free Zone on Wednesday in Lagos.

Mr Wahab said the present administration was committed to increasing business opportunities in every part of the state.

He noted that the state had invested massively in the Lekki Free Zone corridor with the full awareness that the part of the state would be the future of Nigeria.

Mr Wahab described Lagos State as the only state in the country with clear-cut climate change policies.

He said the state recently launched phase II of the Lagos Climate Resilience and Adaptation policy, adding that the launch demonstrated the readiness of the state in combating climate change issues.

Mr Wahab said the state was open to partnership and investment in the waste management value chain comprising solid and liquid waste and other opportunities in the environmental space.

He mentioned some local /rural areas where investment could be activated to benefit the communities to change the narrative and enhance commitment to development in these areas.

“It is not enough to have the commitment on paper; if you have the approach and desire to lift 50,000 households on solar belt out of the national grid and put them under this policy, this portrays commitment,” Mr Wahab said.

He said the state government had ramped up physical infrastructure in the Lekki Free Zone, highlighting road infrastructure from Akodo to Epe, Abraham Adesanya and free trade zone areas.

In his response, the managing director of Lekki Free Zone Development Company, Zhang Bin, said his organisation and his country, China, were ready to support Lagos climate change initiatives in the Lekki Free Zone area.

Mr Bin said they were willing to share knowledge and find out the needs of the government for solar belt programmes in the communities around the free zone.

He added that they would assist with capacity building and improve the power supply and livelihood of people in Africa.

(NAN)