Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, disclosed on Sunday that the state is not in a hurry to fully reopen critical sectors of its economy.
Speaking at a media briefing at the State House in Marina, the Governor said his administration plans to roll out a “register-to-open initiative” because it cannot afford to keep people and businesses on lockdown permanently.
Sanwo-Olu said officials of the Lagos State Safety Commission (LSSC) and Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) will be visiting restaurants, companies, religious houses to assess their level of readiness for reopening.
He said, “We are at a level where we are reviewing the other arms of the economy. In the coming days, we will be starting what we call Register-to-Open, which means all players in the restaurant business, event centres, entertainment, malls and cinemas will go through a form of re-registration and space management.
“There is a regulation that will be introduced to supervise this move. We will be coming to their facilities to assess their level of readiness for a future opening.
“I don’t know when that opening will happen in the weeks ahead, but we want these businesses to begin to tune themselves to the reality of COVID-19 with respect to how their work spaces need to look like.
“For us, it is not to say they should re-open fully tomorrow or any time; there has be a process guiding the re-opening. We will be mandating LASEPA and Safety Commission to begin the enumeration process and the agencies will be communicating with all relevant businesses and houses in the days ahead.
“I must, however, caution that this should not be misinterpreted as a licence for full opening; it is certainly not. The State’s economy is not ready for that now.”
Sanwo-Olu asked businesses, religious centres and residents to maintain the status quo while the state works out modalities for full reopening.