By Lucy Osuizigbo
The Lagos State Government says it will soon commence total upgrading of schools in the State, especially in the slum areas.
This is contained in a communiqué issued at the end of a three-day retreat held in Lagos for members of the State’s Executive Council and legislators from the state.
The lawmakers who took part in the retreat included those in the Senate, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly.
The theme of the retreat was “Good Governance in a Recession.’’
The communiqué stated that there was the need to upgrade the quality of schools through training and re-training of teachers, as well as improving the infrastructure.
It said this would help to improve the standard of education across the State, particularly in slum areas.
It also resolved to evolve a robust Youth Policy that would include active Private Sector Partnership and also fast-track the development of a Senior Citizens’ Policy, both to be implemented from January 2017.
“Participants reaffirmed the vision of the government to continually enshrine the doctrine of ‘inclusive governance’ to foster collaboration amongst the three arms of government,’’ it said.
In the area of improving revenue generation, it was agreed that the state government must work towards increasing its tax base rather than increase the tax rate(s).
“There was the need to develop better approach of financing the State’s budget, and efforts should be redoubled to reduce the dependence on federal allocation.
“Also increasing the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to a target of N30billion monthly in 2017 and N50billion monthly in 2018, as well as meeting the target of yearly budget size of N1trillion commencing from 2019.
“Private investments towards accelerating growth in the Tourism and Hospitality sector for sustainable job creation and increased revenue generation would also be encouraged
“Aggressive priority to integrated transportation system and sustainable solid waste management system by overhauling and re-branding the sectors in collaboration with the private sector,’’ it said.
On the health sector, it resolved to fast-track the implementation of the recently passed Lagos State Health Insurance Law to provide the necessary financial resources for development of health infrastructure.
The communiqué said that with the health infrastructure, government could as well as promote medical tourism in the State.
