As part of measures to ease the hardship being faced by Lagosians occasioned by the rising cost of living, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has declared the state’s readiness to feed 85,500 residents daily for the next 60 days.

Sanwo-Olu, who spoke on Thursday, February 23, 2024, who rolled out relief measures, said the state government would feed between 1,000 and 1,500 persons daily in each of the 57 local governments and development centres in the state.

He said: “The third level of our intervention in agriculture sector is what we call “Soup Bowl”, which we similarly rolled out during COVID-19 lockdown. We have identified local cafeteria operators and caterers within communities.

“Funds will be sent to them to prepare the soup bowls. Vouchers will be given to anybody to walk in and eat free of charge. We want to be able to feed between 1,000 and 1,500 people in every local government area daily for the next 30 to 60 days at the first instance,” he said.

To address the rising food prices, Sanwo-Olu announced three layers of agricultural interventions. He said the state government would be distributing combo packages of food items to vulnerable Lagosians, targeting 300,000 households.

The governor said the state had concluded the procurement of over 100 trailers of rice and other food items, but currently fine-tuning the logistics for seamless distribution to the beneficiaries.

Sanwo-Olu said Lagos would be opening “Sunday Market” in 42 communities across the state, where staple food would be available for residents to buy at reduced prices.

Shoppers would only be able to buy items not more than N25,000, with each shopper getting 25 per cent rebate immediately after purchase.

The Sunday Market, the governor said, will open for the next five weeks.

The governor has also reduced the number of days in which civil servants would come to work.

The governor said that public servants would be expected to be at the office thrice in a week.

“Effective from next week, the working hours of workers from Level 1 to Level 14 in the state’s civil service will be rescheduled. They will now come to office for maximum period of three times in a week. This measure will not shut down governance, neither will it disrupt operations of government. It will all be calendarised and scheduled.

“Workers in Level 15 to Level 17 will be required to work four times in a week. All we seek to achieve is reducing the pressure on our workers and save them of additional stress.”

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In the area of public transportation, Sanwo-Olu announced a 25 per cent fare slash across the state-owned public transport channels, including Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), train and ferry services.

“Rising cost of transportation has also made it pertinent for us to initiate an intervention in the sector. For the public using the government-owned transport services, we are implementing 25 per cent fare reduction on all our public transportation channels.

“We are also working with various commercial transporters to assist in little way we can to ease the situation. Instructions have been given to government functionaries for the implementation of these measures; modalities will be provided.”

Sanwo-Olu said that students needed to be in school everyday, so the government would work out transport allowance for teachers.

In health, Sanwo-Olu also reintroduced free child delivery programme for expectant mothers in all the state-owned General Hospitals and special maternity centres.

The state government, he said, would take up the cost of the child delivery, including Caesarean section.

The governor said the six health districts in the state would also carry out health missions, twice a week, to provide health checks for residents.

“There will be doctors and nurses on ground, this takes effect from next week,” he said.

On education, he said all government schools should desist from demanding for tax clearance from parents and guardians for enrolment of their children, to reduce out-of-school children.

Sanwo-Olu said the state was insisting that landlords should not collect more than one-year rent, urging residents to report defaulting people to the government.

Sanwo-Olu said the governments of Lagos, Ogun and Oyo were working together to light up the stretch of Lagos Ibadan expressway.

The Star