COVID-19: Governor Sanwo-Olu Considers Full Re-Opening Of Businesses, Worship Centres In Lagos

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said his administration is considering full reopening of the critical sectors of its economy and worship centres.

Sanwo-Olu, who disclosed this while speaking at a media briefing on Sunday, said the plan will not be implemented in a hurry.

According to him, the state government would be rolling out register-to-open initiative as a part of its plan because it cannot afford to keep people and businesses on lockdown permanently.

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The governor said that officials from the Lagos State Safety Commission (LSSC) and Lagos State Environment Protection Agency (LASEPA) would be visiting restaurants, companies, and religious houses to assess their levels of readiness. 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 workspaces need to look like.

“For us, it is not to say they should re-open fully tomorrow (Monday) 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 of activities.

This is coming two weeks after Governor Sanwo-Olu ordered partial re-opening of Lagos businesses, markets and stores from 9 am till 3 pm on selected days.