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Lagos to establish liaison offices in 20 LGAs


Ambode
Lagos State Governor, Akinwumi Ambode
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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