By Lamudi

Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola, has signed into law a bill amending the State's Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law. The amended law lifted the restriction on employment of General Manager of the State's Urban Renewal Authority (LASURA), making other relevant professionals in urban renewal and development eligible for the position.

The Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law of 2010, which created agencies including the LASURA, had reserved the position of the General Manager of the Authority for a Town Planner. The Law, as amended and passed by the House of Assembly, now reads that the General Manager must be a person of proven ability and integrity with relevant qualifications and at least 15 years post-qualification cognate experience in urban renewal.

Lagos State House of Assembly
Source: www.lagoshouseofassembly.gov.ng

In his remarks before appending his signature to the bill at the Lagos House, Ikeja, Governor Fashola said the amendment had become necessary because of the requirement for more multi-dimensional professional capacity within LASURA to enable the Authority undertake and complete part of the uncompleted World Bank projects which lifespan expired late last year. The Governor explained that the State Government took a collaborative project with the World Bank and recently the Lagos Metropolitan and Urban Development and Governance Project (LMDGP)

"Like all World Bank projects with limited life spans, the project wound up late last year. "So part of its uncompleted work is what LASURA will be undertaking and that is the justification for the requirement for more multi-dimensional, professional capacity within the agency so that it would have the full complement," the Governor said, stressing that there was need for Government to retain the flexibility to look for a related professional, especially when the skills lie outside the purview of a Town Planner.

An LMDGP road project before and during construction

According to the Governor, people with construction economics knowledge will also be required because they are critical people with project planning and project management experience. He added that apart from the urban renewal and regeneration essence, the Authority is also dependent on proper economics, costing, project planning, project design and project monitoring.

Pointing out that the new law now provides the required window to expand the kind of personnel in the Authority even if, for now, a town planner still heads it as General Manager, Fashola added that the law reinforces "the growing footprint of the work LASURA is doing and the need for more skills".Earlier, while introducing the bill, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Ade Ipaye, said the amendment of the law has become expedient because the work of LASURA which is essentially urban regeneration, urban renewal and optimization of land use, is multi-dimensional involving a mix of professionals.

This article first appeared on Lamudi on August 26, 2014.

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