The Lagos State Government, in collaboration with the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office recently held a workshop to develop guidelines for an urban renewal programme in Lagos State.
Declaring the stakeholders’ workshop tagged “Future Cities Programme Centred on Development of Guidelines for Urban Programme ln Lagos State” open, the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr. Idris Salako said the main objective of the programme was to carry out targeted interventions to encourage sustainable development, increase prosperity and alleviate the high level of urban poverty.
Salako noted that slum and its characteristics had become a global phenomenon for the past two decades, disclosing that Lagos State Government had continually paid the deserved attention to the upgrade of slums to achieve a more sustainable physical environment as indicated in the Lagos Development Plan of 2012- 2025.
The Commissioner hinted that the Lagos State Urban Renewal Agency had recently received a boost in its budgetary allocation to tackle the present challenges in the area of slum upgrade, regeneration and redevelopment.
“The development of guidelines for urban renewal programme in Lagos State is timely and a milestone in the realisation of the State Government’s T.H.E.M.E.S agenda. With this, there will be sustainable solutions to slums and informal settlements in Lagos State” Salako said.
He maintained that the guidelines would enhance slum redevelopment in line with international best practices, noting that the strategic phase of the programme had been completed alongside scoping meetings, training, planning charterer, terms of reference formulation and validation amongst other components.
While revealing that the workshop served as kick-off for the implementation stage of the urban development programme, Salako expressed gratitude to the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office for its technical assistance in the area of urban planning since 2018 when the discussion on Global Future Cities Programme was initiated.