LASG, Bank of Industry Sign Memorandum of Understanding on Occupational Safety Health

Segun James

The Lagos State Government yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding, (MoU) on Occupational and health with the Bank of Industry, (BOI) as part of effort at ensuring safety standard across the state.

The signing took place during Y2025 Lagos State Occupational Safety and Health Conference held at Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island.

The MoU which was signed by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on behalf of the Lagos State Safety Commission, (LSSC), told the BoI that “we will work with you, we’ll handle you to ensure that we’re not just saying it, we want to actually have safety first in everything that we’re doing.”

28 Occupational Safety Officers were also unveiled with Governor Sanwo-Olu as the Commandant.

Sanwo-Olu noted, “We use this as a springboard to encourage others and so you can see that what we’re building is not just a policy that is far off or an integration that is not people-centric, it is that conversation that we believe we will leave here truly blessed and understanding what everybody’s role and responsibility must be.”

Governor Sanwo-Olu recalled during COVID-19 pandemic, saying “It was such a difficult time for us and Lanre was just being recently appointed and I said to him that you know this is the only time where we truly can protect life and property.

“We truly can help our people to live in a safe and secure environment and I’m happy that with the safety commission, all of you working together we were able to reverse what we thought was going to be a catastrophic experience for us into something that was very manageable because Lagos was the centerpiece during the COVID-19 pandemic

“And we were able to do new initiatives like the gradual reopening of the economy, ensuring that you can register to open, ensuring that you can come and work with you. These are some of the things that we are working on.

“You can see that this has helped us to further institutionalize the safety commission and you’ve seen we have registered almost 20 000 businesses in one form or the other, where from the comfort of the office they can actually remotely see and assess what you’re doing and they can give you a clean bill.

“We believe that this enduring initiative has not only strengthened the compliance but have also made a lot of people accountable. It reflects our administration’s unwavering commitment to building a culture of safety and resilience across the state through the Lagos State Safety Commission.

“We have designed and implemented practical result driven interventions across critical sectors of our economy. It has resulted in drastic reduction.”

The governor added, “The enforcement is coming down because people are now ensuring and understanding that they can self-regulate themselves, knowing what is expected of them and we’ve seen reduction in construction in manufacturing, in also some educational establishments in hospitality, event management food industry and the likes and this is essentially driven by routine and impromptu safety audits and inspection.

“While we believe that lessons are being learnt and they are essentially being transmitted into more safety and more practical enablement, we have also pioneered a signing today which we’ve seen the first legal safety policy document that continues to guide our strategies, it continues to strengthen our accountability and to demonstrate governments unwavering commitment to protecting life and property

The governor commended the Lagos State Safety Commission for their giant strides. And it has made a significant influence. We believe the mandate that we set out for you.

He charged the safety officers to ensure that there’s fairness and justice at all times. “If you don’t need to shut a place down, do not shut it down. If you think that what they did is just to encourage them, to speak to them, that’s all you need to do.

“It’s when you know that you want the full hand of the law on them, then you do not shy away from doing that. And so, we need to do it responsibly, with a sense of accountability.”

Director General, Lagos State Safety Commission, LSSC, Lanre Mojola said, “We realize that enforcement action is reducing as compliance is increasing. As we continue to go to more places to inspect more places, largely our enforcement is returned.

“But we still ensure that Vertical Transportation Equipment are fully enforced to the letter as Lagos continues to move on.”

Continuing, Mojola added, “We’re doing a lot of work in terms of regulations. Some of the regulations have been around swimming pool control, construction safety, dangerous goods, transportation.

“Lagos has the port. So, we find out that a lot of people move things, dangerous goods, oil, gas, from Lagos to the hinterland.”

He added, “One of the things that we’ve also done is the establishment of the Occupational Safety Officers. It’s the first in Africa. Just like the E1 was first over the weekend.

“Today, we’re introducing 28 new Occupational Safety Officers for Lagos State Government. We intend to continue to employ more as time passes on.”

He reiterated that over 20,000 facilities already registered have GPIS with pictorial evidence.

Mojola stated that the commission is leveraging on AI. “How do we ensure that we can predict issues before they crystallize?”

Mojola stated, “The game changer for us is the Domestic Safety Platform. Working with the Ministry of Justice, working with the Commissioner for Youth and Social Development and LASRRA, we’re developing a platform where we can indeed validate every single domestic staff in Lagos.

“And that way, we’re safeguarding the domestic staff. We’re also safeguarding their principals by ensuring that we’re putting in domestic safety principles. This, we believe, will impact everyone across Lagos State.”

In his welcome address, the Commissioner for Special Duties and lnter-governmental Relations, Mr. Olugbenga Oyerinde, stressed the occupational and general public safety remains a top priority to the state government, noting “every Lagosian, deserves to live, work, and move freely without any fear.

“This conference has become a platform to host leaders of thought, Safety practitioners, policy makers, and industry players who come together to exchange ideas, review progress, and to chart pathways for safer workplaces and safer communities,” the Commissioner added.