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Sanwo-Olu warns physical planning, approving agencies against sharp practices

By Gbenga Salau
10 December 2020   |   4:06 am
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday, warned land and property permit approving agencies in the state that his administration would no longer tolerate officers engaging in sharp practices during approval.

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu (left); Special Adviser on Housing, Mrs. Toke Benson-Awoyinka and others during a tour of exhibition stands at the opening of the maiden real estate marketplace conference and exhibition in Lagos…yesterday.

Seeks private sector collaboration to tackle housing deficit
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday, warned land and property permit approving agencies in the state that his administration would no longer tolerate officers engaging in sharp practices during approval.

The governor, who spoke at the maiden Lagos Real Estate Market Place Conference and Exhibition with the theme, “Unearthing Real Opportunities in Real Estate, Making Lagos a 21st Century Economy’, said that residents and real estate practitioners were complaining about turnaround tine for permit approval.

He, therefore, said that the Ministry of Physical Planning and agencies under it needed to scale up and do better job about physical planning approvals.

Sanwo-Olu noted that the agencies need to be up and doing, especially as the real estate sector has the capacity to redefine the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country, with Lagos not an exception.

The governor stated that government and all stakeholders must collaborate to define and redefine the real estate sector space.

He further said the real estate economy and opportunities are boundless so there must be deliberate efforts to explore the opportunities.

Sanwo-Olu said that government could not claim to know it all in exploring the opportunities, reason it must collaborate and sit with critical stakeholders to explore the opportunities.

The governor said the state government was working on all the indices to make Lagos competitive in terms of ease of doing business, especially as Lagos is compared with cities around the world.

During the panel discussion, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Moyosore Onigbanjo, said that efforts aimed at promoting ease of doing business led to the enactment of the state property protection law in 2016.

Onigbanjo, represented by a director in the ministry, Mrs. Kehinde Taiwo, said the taskforce on land grabbing set up as a result of the law had received over 4,300 petitions with over 2,000 of such petitions concluded.

Also, the Special Adviser to Sanwo-Olu on Housing, Mrs. Toke Benson-Awoyinka, in her welcome address, appealed to investors in the real estate sector to team up with the state government to create a home ownership model that would help address the deficits observed in housing market through the state Public and Private Partnership initiative in providing mass housing.

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