Speaking at the signing of the MoU held at the Lagos House, Alausa, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode said that the development was a major milestone and a positive paradigm shift in the provision of street lighting for the state.
Mr. Ambode, represented by the Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Olawale Oluwo, said that successful commencement of the partnership signals a positive progress to the Light Up Lagos Project.
He said that this was a special initiative of his administration comprising street lighting, community electrification and embedded power programme.
“With this agreement we are signing today, we are setting a new chart for the future of what street lighting, installation, management and control will be like in Lagos. It is a major paradigm shift.
“We have about 33,000 street lights in Lagos under the Lagos State Electricity Board. Now, the LED UK, based on this 300 kilometres, will give us about 10,000 street lights.
“So, technically, they are going to be having about 31 per cent of our entire street light infrastructure and this is a major significant development,” he said.
Mr. Ambode said that with the partnership, there would no longer be any fixed costs with regards to management of street light installations across the state.
He said that all challenges hitherto associated with street lighting would now be a thing of the past.
“As a government, what we are doing is that we are not installing poles; we are not providing security; we are not bothering ourselves with diesel.
“We are not worried on Fridays and Saturdays about people coming back from clubs knocking down our poles.
“All those have been outsourced now. We are not going to be worried about that. We just buy light from investment of this LED UK with all their installations.
“They manage it, they provide the security, they power it and as long as we see the light, we pay; that is what has changed today,” he said.
Earlier, Alan Parker, the Chief Executive Officer of LED UK Ltd., said that his firm was greatly honored to partner the state government to deliver the project.
Mr. Parker said that over the next 12 months, a British and Nigerian consortium would work to retrofit major roads in the state with urban regeneration project in Ikoyi, Ikeja and Victoria Island.
“As part of this project, we will be employing over 500 local people here in Lagos and investing seven million dollars in the construction and setup of a LED lighting and Hybrid Energy Power Assembly Plant in Epe.
“This facility will offer ground breaking testing, training and education programmes on renewable technologies, while providing the future for all lighting and hybrid energy power systems in Nigeria.
“These high quality products will be built by Nigerians with the support, experience, knowledge and technology supplied by LED UK for all commercial indoor and outdoor applications for the African market,” Mr. Parker said.
(NAN)