Governor Sanwoolu Lauds Investments By Bill Gates and Aliko Dangote
The Executive Governor of Lagos, Mr. Babajide Sanwoolu has lauded the impact the duo of Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates and Founder of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has made on the Nigerian economy. The Governor made this disclosure through his Instagram page earlier this week.
You would recall that only a few days ago, President Muhammadu Buhari was in Lagos to commission key projects within the state. Part of the projects commissioned by Mr. President was the Lekki Deep Sea Port and the Dangote fertilizer plant, the biggest in this part of the world. Earlier in the week too, Governor Babajide Sanwoolu also commissioned the opening of Microsoft’s first African Development Centre in Ikoyi as Lagos continues to embrace big data, and at the same time continues to play a key role in strategically enabling business in Africa.
This center, which is Microsoft’s first of such in Africa, will support the development of technology and engineering solutions driven by world-class African talents.
The Governor in his remark after the Microsoft commissioning said ”Now is the time to get excited about tech, now is the time to get involved in tech, and now is the time to take up learning opportunities as they open up. We invite other top players in the ecosystem to tap into the talent opportunity by setting up in Lagos state, as we continue to provide an enabling environment, infrastructure, and regulation”.
On the Lekki Sea Port that was just commissioned by President Buhari, Sanwoolu paid tribute to the vision of the former Governor of Lagos, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who saw the vision many years ago.
Governor Sanwoolu also paid tribute to the duo of Bill Gates and Aliko Dangote, in his words the Governor said ”Earlier this week, our vision of a Greater Lagos, and a better society for our teeming youths through partnerships and investments received a major boost and achieved the recognition and validation it deserves. Alhaji Aliko Dangote of the Dangote Group, and Bill Gates of Microsoft Corporation, are exemplary men who believe in and keyed into our plans of making Lagos a megacity, and its youths a reference point for innovation, creativity, and resilience”.
Sanwoolu also went on to say that ”Microsoft in a $100m investment, opened its first African Development Center in Nigeria, making the hub the first in Africa. The aim of this center, which is to facilitate the creation of tech solutions that will solve both African and global problems, will nurture, and create employment opportunities for our youths while also working with them to provide software engineering solutions to Africa and the world. With this move, Lagos state is on its way to becoming the Silicon Valley of Africa. So also, The Dangote Fertilizer Plant, which was commissioned earlier this week, is the largest Granulated Urea Fertilizer complex in Africa. Built at a cost of $2.5 billion, and occupying 500 hectares of land at the Lekki Free Trade Zone, will produce over 3 million tonnes of urea fertilizer annually”.
Speaking on how these projects would bring about job creation, the Governor said ”This plant will not only give Lagos a major boost economically, it will also provide thousands of jobs for our youths, and further put our dear state on the global map as a destination of choice for investments”.
