By Olasunkanmi Akoni & Monsur Olowoopejo

Lagos—Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State has approved N740,461,432.00 as compensation for host communities of Parcel B of the Lekki Free Trade Zone.

The beneficiaries are those displaced in communities like Yegunda, Abomiti and International Airport site.

The Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, Prince Rotimi Ogunleye, who disclosed this yesterday, at a media briefing in Lagos, said the development was in line with the commitment of the administration to engender a sustainable cordial relationship between host communities and investors in the LFTZ.

While stating that the state government had continued to engage the host communities ever since the LFTZ project started in 2004, Ogunleye said the engagement principally centered on the need for the communities to recognize the multiplier effects of the project in terms of employment generation and the value to be added to the socio-economic lives of the people.

He said modalities were being put in place to ensure hitch-free payment of the approved N740 million, adding that the payment would be effected with immediate effect.

Ogunleye, who said the compensation exercise was a continuous process, said N65m was paid early in the year for land owners affected by the ongoing Dangote projects which included petrochemical plant, gas project, fertilizer and refinery project capable of refining 650,000 barrels of oil per day.

He said before now, the host communities of the 3,000 hectares of land housing the LFTZ Development Agency, a company jointly owned by the state government and a consortium of Chinese investors, were heavily compensated, adding that more land owners would be compensated in due course at the end of verification and valuation exercise.