Only 600,000 Pay Tax in Lagos, Says Ambode

• Only 600,000 Pay Tax in Lagos, Says Ambode

Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has said the residents need to adopt a wilful approach to the payment of taxes to address fundamental challenges confronting the state and accelerate development.

The governor spoke at a workshop on this year’s Water Technology and Environmental Control Exhibition and Conference (WATEC) in Ikeja, the state capital.

He said out of the 22 million residents in the state, only 600,000 paid their taxes.

Ambode said such attitude was not helpful to scaling up the provision of infrastructure and other amenities across the state.

Responding to a suggestion that the state government should complete the shoreline protection, particularly in Lekki and Ajah to mitigate the impact of torrential rainfalls causing floods in the areas, Ambode said government’s plan was being inhibited by its limited resources.

He said: “Talking about protecting our shoreline, I want to tell you something. The Ecological Fund that someone talked about does not exist because the previous government, due to political consideration, never gave Lagos anything. Protecting the shoreline runs into billions.

“Disallowing the water to break cost a lot of money. Then, with frozen taxes in the last eight to 10 years, there has not been any increase in taxes..”