• LASRRA GM urges residents to register to get State ID Card

The General Manager of the Lagos State Residents Registration Agency (LASRRA), Mrs. Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, has implored Lagos residents to register to get the Lagos Identity Card because it is critical to the state government having reliable data for planning, maintaining good data helps government to move from guessing to planning with evidence.

Speaking during a sensitisation campaign cum town hall meeting on the roles and responsibilities of LASRRA in Lagos at the Palace of Oba Kolawole Abdullateef Lawal-Olumegbon (Akinwon lV) of Ajah Ile and Okun Ajah, Adebiyi-Abiola stated that every resident of the state counts and every resident should be counted.

She noted that every day people move to Lagos and for the government to plan effectively for a city of this size of over 20 million residents adequately, registration of those living in the state is important.

She stated that LASRRA is committed to making the registration convenient and accessible to all residents.

According to her, some government services like the state health insurance scheme cannot be accessed without LASRRA registration.

She said that the state government has been working to register the number of people within an area across the state because the government wants to ensure that services are planned around real people and real needs.

She thanked Oba Lawal-Olumegbon for supporting and endorsing the process including mobilising the people to attend the sensitization programme.

The general manager said that parents can now register their babies at birth as the agency registration portal has been upgraded to accommodate registering newborns and babies. She added that in registering the new babies, the registration officer will not even touch the babies because of the sophisticated equipment it is deploying for the registration.

She also stated that because the agency understands that a lot of residents are usually business at work, it has concluded plans to be visiting offices and markets to register residents just as it will be visiting schools especially private schools to register students.

She said no students can gain admission into public schools without being registered with LASRRA reason the agency is focusing on visiting private schools.

As part of measures to encourage people to register for the Lagos Identity card, 50 free trade test forms were given to artisans who have registered with LASRRA.

Oba Lawal-Olumegbon thanked the general manager and his team for bringing the sensitisation exercise to his domain as it has helped to educate the residents of his community about the importance of obtaining the LASRRA card.

The monarch therefore implored all those at the programme to register while also urging them to educate their neighbours about the exercise.

He corroborated the statement of the general manager that the data from the registration will help government to plan better for the residents of the state.

According to him, if the residents register, the state government might decide to set up a healthcare centre close to the community because of the growing population which the registration would have validated.