Why Lagos Is Pushing More Developments Into Ogun State- Sanwo-Olu

 The Lagos State governor, Baba­jide Sanwo-Olu, has explained why his administration is push­ing infrastructural development into neighbouring Ogun State, cit­ing the rising cost of land develop­ment, the coastal terrain of Lagos and increasing urbanisation.

Sanwo-Olu said the Lagos State government was working with Ogun State to establish joint cities and development zones around border communities to accommodate the growing popu­lation and ease pressure on hous­ing and infrastructure in Lagos.

The governor spoke on Thurs­day during the Financial Times Africa Summit in London, where he addressed the rising cost of liv­ing in Lagos. He participated in the discussion virtually.

According to him, Lagos fac­es geographical limitations that make construction more expen­sive, forcing developers to explore neighbouring Ogun State, where the terrain is more suitable for large-scale development.

“Secondly, in terms of hous­ing, the geography or the terrain of Lagos is not like any other part of the city. We are in the coastal region where to do two, three lev­els of development, you need to be able to have some level of piling.

“The cost to even go on the ground before you come out to the surface, we are below the sea level. So, it just increases our cost. That is why you see that de­velopment is moving more into our neighbouring state, which is Ogun State, and we don’t have any apology for that because we don’t have any other neighbour other than Ogun State,” he said.

The governor said the state was deliberately encouraging development in Ogun State be­cause its land was more stable, allowing developers to undertake more construction at a relatively lower cost.

He added that the Lagos and Ogun state governments were collaborating to develop border communities and provide infra­structure and essential services for residents who live in Ogun State but travel to Lagos for work.

“We are creating a lot of joint cities or joint development zones all around the border towns. We are actually the ones pushing a lot of infrastructural developments into that region in terms of police, traffic management, response of emergencies and so on,” San­wo-Olu said.

He added that the Lagos gov­ernment was extending support to these areas to ensure that peo­ple living there could commute to Lagos to earn a living.

“We take care of everything so that when people even go to live there, they can still find a journey back to Lagos to come and work and earn a living,” he said.

On the rising cost of living, Sanwo-Olu said the state had taken steps to ease transporta­tion costs through an integrated public transportation system that allows residents to travel by road, rail and waterways.

He disclosed that more than 5.2 million Lagos residents were using the cowry card, a unified payment system for public trans­portation.

The governor said the struc­tured transportation system also served as a form of subsidy, helping to prevent the full impact of rising fuel prices from being passed on to commuters.

“It is true that it has gone up but part of the things that we have done to reduce that is that the structured transportation system is like a subsidy that the government also ensures that we pass to them so that they don’t pass the entire cost to the passen­gers,” he said.

On calls for more affordable housing, Sanwo-Olu argued that the high cost of building materi­als remained a major challenge, noting that cement and iron rods were expensive regardless of the category of housing being con­structed.

“There is really nothing afford­able because there is no affordable cement or affordable iron rod. It is the same cost of iron rod. There is no one iron rod that we said it has to be cheaper for some set of people or some cement that will be cheaper for other set of peo­ple,” he said.