Lagos to establish liaison offices in 20 LGAs
The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund
on Monday said it would establish liaison offices in the 20 local
government areas of the state to enable residents to access the fund.
The Executive Secretary of the Fund, Mr. Akintunde Oyebode, made this known at a news briefing in Ikeja.
He said, “We are in the process of
setting up liaison offices in 20 local government areas
to bring the
fund’s activities closer to the people, and increase our points of
representation to serve Lagos residents.”
He said that the Fund would source
additional N25bn from the domestic and international donors to augment
the N25bn already committed to it by the state government.
Oyebode said that a board set up to
manage the funds had spent the last few months perfecting strategies and
addressing grey areas ahead of disbursement of the funds later in 2016.
He said that the board acknowledged the
fact that residents are eagerly awaiting the commencement of the fund,
especially with the challenging economic recession.
He said, “We will roll out our loan
schemes in all the 20 local government areas and 37 Local Council
Development Areas across the state.
“The full roll out will see us visiting
all the local government areas to hold stakeholders’ sessions where our
workers will educate applicants on the application process, and the
eligibility criteria for our various schemes.
“The businesses we support must
demonstrate capacity to repay our loans being owned by Lagos residents
duly registered by the Lagos State Residents Registration Agency.
“They must show evidence of tax payments to the Lagos Inland Revenue Service (LIRS); and have valid Bank Verification Numbers.”
The state Commissioner for Wealth
Creation and Employment, Mr. Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti, said that
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration was committed to ensuring
that the fund has impact on Lagosians.
He lauded the plan by the LSETF Board to
set up offices in 20 local governments, saying that it would go a long
way to ensuring that no area was marginalised.
He said, “It is important that this
process has taken considerable time, we need to make it work and also
ensure that it benefit all Lagosians.”
In his remarks, the chairman, State
House of Assembly Committee on Employment, Mr. Shola Giwa, said that the
House would give the operational guidelines of the fund speedy passage.
He said, “This is one of the pivotal
promises of Governor Ambode, and I can assure you that the House will do
its best to ensure that we do it right.”
The Fund was established by the Ambode’s
administration to boost at least 100,000 micro, small and medium
enterprises, create 300 thousand direct and 600 thousand indirect jobs
within the next three years.
This would add over two hundred thousand new tax payers to the state tax register.
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