Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, Governor of Lagos State says the state is seeking collaboration with the Federal Republic of Germany in the areas of technology.
According to him, the broad areas of collaboration will extend into power and finance for appreciable level of development and sustenance of business in the state.
Governor Ambode said this at the Lagos House in Ikeja while receiving Mr. Joachim Gauck President of Germany, noting that Lagos is looking forward to a sister-city relationship between the economic capital of Nigeria and Frankfurt, the commercial hub in Germany.
”Lagos, being a commercial hub and the fourth largest economy in Africa and Frankfurt, a major economic hub in Europe should explore a working relationship in terms of massive financial service and technology that would be mutually beneficial to the two cities”, Ambode says.
The Governor also said that since assuming office, he has deliberately put in place measures to encourage foreign investment and at the same time invested heavily in guarantying the security of lives and properties of both Nigerians and foreigners in Lagos State.
“I must recognize quickly the volume of German investments that we have in Lagos and I must quickly recognize what it means to us because ultimately it is about creation of jobs for our people and where we see a situation where we have willing partners and by the demonstration of the number and quality of businessmen that you have brought in this delegation, I am assured that we would have so much to do together as we proceed”, he said.
“I will like to let you know that the key areas that we are deeply interested in are power, technology and transport. We believe that we need to change the state of our transportation system in Lagos and that is why we are quietly talking to some German companies that we want a situation where we can actually phase out some of the buses that we are using for the quality buses that come from Germany and we are talking about buses to the volume of 10, 000 to 20, 000”.
“Beyond that, we must also start to think about creating assembling plants and also workshop plants in Lagos to grow the economy of Lagos and at the same time grow the economy of Nigeria,” he adds.
In his comments, President Gauck who spoke through an interpreter said he was delighted to be in Lagos which he described as the center of business, political development, creativity and intellect in the art of West Africa.
“My visit is meant to underline the friendly close ties existing between Germany and Nigeria”.
”We have great interest in the area of trade and we in Germany are ready to share our experiences in those areas where you think they might prove helpful or necessary and we are happy to share the experiences we have acquired in fostering security and fostering social security. We are happy to share the knowledge we have acquired in the field of science and technology and cooperate with you,” President Gauck said.
President Gauck, who is billed to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari today, also pledged the readiness of his country to assist Nigeria with technical know-how to successfully fight terrorism.
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