 |
| Lagos Governor Babajide SanwoOlu |
The Lagos State Government has unveiled its roadmap in the area of technology, promising to use technology to drive all the facets of life of the over 21 million residents to make business and life easy.
The Babajide SanwoOlu-led Lagos government is hoping to reposition the state to further make it more habitable for the people and drive investments.
According to the state, areas of focus will include security, transportation, education, road networks, smart city, cyber security, traffic management, among others.
Special Adviser to Governor Sanwo-Olu on Innovation and Technology, Tubosun Alake, said all these issues are now “the centre of the new focus of technology.”
Alake said the state has come to realise that nothing can be achieved without the deployment of modern technology.
Speaking with select media organisations in Lagos, Alake said technology is the pillar of all the plans of the governor. He said the deployment of technology has become critical in order to maximize the potential of the state.
Going forward, he said the state wants to bridge the gap between government and the innovation ecosystem. This, according to him, came from the discovery of the fact that there are several young people, who are tech-oriented, spotted in some areas including Yaba, where startups are nurtured.
According to him, it is not enough for the government to be innovative; it must be seen supporting innovation. He said the governor wants to support the innovation sector and make it the next big industry in the state.
Alake said the state has four major pillars of innovation, which are access, infrastructure, funding and talents, which are broad areas for empowerment.
As part of the drive, he said the state has started the Open Government Initiative. “If you go to developed climes, government data is queryable. You can get data to know what exactly that government is doing. Hiding data, which is peculiar in Africa, has not encouraged development. So, we believe that the Open Government Initiative will provide the platform, where people can go and query government data.
“The initiative can also help developers to know the kind of solution that will help in resolving some of the state’s challenges. For instance, traffic management and the rest can be adequately looked into. We believe access to data would help development of the state.”
In the area of infrastructure, Alake said metro-fibre cable project is coming up in the state. He said the state is deploying 3000km fibre optic cable across the city.
To facilitate this project, he said the state will provide ducts infrastructure, targeted at reducing the cost of deployment for fibre operators. He disclosed that the government won’t take over the fibre-market. “No, we are reducing the cost for other operators to bring in their infrastructure. This is because the state needs more than what it can provide. So, the private sector must be empowered to be able to get to the market faster.”
Alake said in the second phase, another 3000km fibre-optic cable with ducts will be deployed, especially in the hinterland, which is expected to trigger new growth.
