Lagos State emphasises need for Smart City project

The Lagos State Government has emphasised the need for the state to be technology-driven to become a Smart City Hub in Africa, thereby measuring up with the demand of the 21st century.

The General Manager of Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency (LASIMRA), Bisola Coker-Odusote, who stated this, noted that the ministry’s third annual stakeholders’ conference, which will hold on October 4, was planned to set the government’s infrastructural approach to achieve the project.

According to her, the state government has been passionate about the smart city initiative, which she described as the unified fibre duct infrastructure project.

She hinted that the project would involve private partnerships, which would manage the project for 25 years before the government takes over.

Coker-Odusote added that the project would extend to the state biometric system and digital cabinet, Lagos ferry and other areas of performance in line with the state’s core objectives.

“We want Lagos to be the Smart City hub of Africa and 80 per cent progress has been made so far. The vision of LASIMRA is to be a model technology-driven and innovative regulatory agency that guarantees public safety through the enforcement of regulations for the development and maintenance of all categories of ‘utility infrastructure’ in public space.”

Odusote also hinted that the government has put up measures in place to ensure that the government’s properties are safe.

“We have monitoring and enforcement departments that have been set up to effectively monitor government’s properties. Anyone who destroys government property will be arrested and prosecuted according to the law.”