Press Releases

Fashola Charges African Leaders To Consider Dev. Of Uniform Structure Of Property Transactions

Aug 23, 2008 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Saturday charged African leaders to seriously think about the development of a near uniform structure of property transaction and exchange that will enable capital to be invested and moved across the continent in a uniformly accepted manner.

Governor Fashola who stated this at a conference on Micro financing with the theme: “Road Map to Sustainable Micro Funding in Sub- Saharan Africa” held at the Eko Hotel, Victoria Island added that in trying to ensure that micro finance succeeds in Sub Saharan Africa, property titling, transfer, use and other forms of devolution must operate in uniformly identified manner such that the people do not become slaves to assets they acquire.

He added that “we once did it through cowries and other forms of barter trade: we can do it today using existing models to suit our circumstances”.

In his words: “A lot of people in rural and urban centres across Africa are sitting on thousands of real estate from which no benefit is being derived. Real estate must be seen for what it really is, that is, an asset that must be amenable to conversion to create access to credit and opportunities for whoever is privileged to control it for the period of his life”.

He added that with the increasing urbanization and migration of poor people to urban centres, there is a need by the privileged few to understand that poor people also have the same or similar values as the rich have for quality goods and services.

Said he: “The poor also want good and clean water, electricity, good food, qualitative health care and all of those things that collectively signpost a qualitative lifestyle. Their migration in millions to urban centres is not a sight seeing tour but a search for good life”.

Governor Fashola affirmed that any micro funding scheme must therefore recognize that the poor represents a latent market for goods and services which must be awakened from slumber.

He informed that micro credit funding must see large scale entrepreneurship as the solution to poverty because it is only in this way that prosperity will grow.

He called for the introduction of regulated skill centres that introduce technology and efficiency to the utilization of existing skills or operation of known trades, adding that semi-automation for improved economies of scale will help productive capacity which is critical for the utilization of the capital that micro financing will produce.

Governor Fashola said the successes of the phone operators in Bangladesh have exploded the myth that the poor or illiterate cannot use technology but the education desirable is that which its focus is on making the curve straight and not steep and one which seek to promote new economies from existing capacities.

He advocated the preservation of the creative essence of artisans like bricklayers, hairdressers, welders, grocers, weavers, blacksmiths, produce buyers and all those who constitute the bottom of the pyramid as a means of solving the problem of poverty in Sub Saharan Africa.

Governor Fashola traced the origin of poverty to when the middle class which replaced the colonialists attempted to run formal businesses on informal structures.

Rather, the Governor said Co-operatives, settlements, small partnerships and registered businesses requiring minimum book keeping and entry knowledge must be the platform for operation, rather than large corporations or limited liability companies with their formal complex structures.

The Governor asserted that Micro Finance has found a foothold as a credible and effective vehicle for poverty alleviation and has brought with it the added benefit of allowing people to use their creativity and skills to venture into self support and sustenance.

He revealed that the Lagos State Micro Finance initiative was solely influenced by the exploits of Professor Muhammad Yunus, a 2006 Nobel Laureate, in Bangladesh , adding that before then his concerns about helping the poor has been steered towards concepts of social security made popular by Europeans and American scholars.

Governor Fashola reiterated that the greatest asset of Nigeria is not oil but that of the people it has.

He said as part of the poverty alleviation and job creation efforts of the present administration, skills acquisition centres are being constructed across the state to encourage young school leavers, young graduates and different categories of the unemployed in the state.

He added that curently about 4208 students who will graduate next month are undergoing comprehensive vocational and technical training programmes which would see them being empowered with tools to start their own businesses

Earlier in his speech, the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola had described Lagos as an ideas centre which is being governed by an ideas Governor, adding that the successful hosting of the workshop on Micro Finance in Lagos lends credence to this.

He added that over 54 percent of the nation’s population live beyond the poverty line and they need help which must come from Micro Finance houses as they remain the only means of lifting the poor.

The Minister said the present government at the centre is committed to deepening the process and ensuring that existing micro finance institutions operate within the policies and guidelines to create the needed impact for the economy and for the rapid growth of small and medium enterprises.

Mr. Babalola added that the challenges being faced by SME’s are enormous but that government has been designing policies and programmes of finance for developing them and ensuring that they redress the poverty imbalance.