Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Monday received the German Consul General in Nigeria Mr Michael Derus on a courtesy visit, stating that vocational training and education generally represent one of the twin pillars of human developmental index.
The Governor who spoke in his office at the Lagos House, Ikeja, added that once people are well educated, they would acquire skills and the only thing they need is for them to be provided with the opportunity to put those skills to work and to be self supporting.
He explained that the other pillar is the health care pillar which entails keeping those people who now have skills healthy and fit in a way that the assets value that they inherently represent to the development of society is fully optimized.
While speaking on the forthcoming Climate Change Summit which the Envoy promised to attend, the Governor said the focus is the business opportunity that are inherent now in the challenges of combating nature’s reaction and those are the businesses that will help first arrest the threat of nature and also generate a new economy for young people for a new generation.
“There would be a depth of ideas and suggestion and initiatives that should come through from the Summit. We can only expand the full width of the possibilities. And the Economic Summit which holds next month is really the icing on the cake really because it helps to set first our economic agenda to the investing public, to people at large and of course to the international community”.
“It gives them a clear idea of what route we would pursue. What we would be doing and it also helps us to report progress that we have made. So, it is a Summit that has come to earn its place as more than just a talk shop because the resolutions of every Summit are very scrupulously pursued and implemented by us as a government and they represent the signpost of the progress that you have alluded to that we have made here”, he explained.
Fashola reiterated that every time the State holds the Economic Summit and arrives at resolutions, it makes sure that it does its best to try and implement the resolutions and told the envoy that the doors of Lagos remain open to German businesses and global business concerns.
“This is the way it would be in an increasingly globalised world and I am sure that there are one or two things also that German business and communities will benefit from Nigerian initiatives and this must be for me, the spirit of partnership going forward”, he added.
The Governor while welcoming the Consul General was happy that Nigeria and the Republic of Germany have enjoyed cordial relationship from which Lagos in particular has had deep and historical relationships in the development of public infrastructure.
Speaking earlier, Mr Derus commended the Governor on his really outstanding and “far beyond Nigeria noted” efforts, adding that whenever he has visitors in Lagos who have not been to the State for quite sometimes, they always acknowledged that Lagos has changed a lot.
He added that in a mega city like Lagos, the changes mean a lot and is also evident from the various initiatives taken by the Lagos Government that it is really touching the pulse of the time as evidenced by the Climate Change Summit this week and the Economic Summit next month.
He registered an increasing interest of German companies not only to do business with Nigeria but also to come to the country to make an initial investment to see what they can also contribute to vocational training which is a very strong side of the German economy.
He also sought a meeting with officials of the State in the educational sector because the German cultural centre, the Goethe Institute, would like to present their training programme for German as a foreign language and even going into partnering with schools in the state.
The Lagos State Governor was joined by the Commissioners for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, Economic Planning and Budget, Mr Ben Akabueze and Youth, Sports and Social Development, Mr Enitan Oshodi to receive the Consular General who was accompanied on his visit by the Deputy Consul General, Mr Joerg Steckhan and Political and Commercial Attache, Ms Sophia Stephan.
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