Lagos State is set to join the league of pencil producers in the world as Akinwunmi Ambode, the state governor, has given his nod to a firm to pioneer production of the age-long writing tool in the state.

 Prof. Ademola Abass, Special Adviser, Office of Overseas Affairs and Investment at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre, Alausa, Ikeja, disclosed this on Thursday during the Ministerial Press Briefing of the Lagos State Government

.The briefing was as part of activities marking the one year in Office of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

Prof. Abass said the state government with the facilitation of an expanse of land in the Epe axis of the state for the company to build its factory approved the proposal for pencil manufacturing by Gold Anchor Investment Limited.

 The Special Adviser to the Governor noted that it was surprising that until now the rest of West Africa depended on the importation of pencil to meet their demands as none of such manufacturing outfit existed in the entire West African sub-region.

On number of investment coming to Lagos, Prof. Abass stated that the state had received 162 investment propositions worth $43 billion, adding that the state continued to get attention from investors in different sectors, especially ICT, manufacturing, environment, infrastructure, real estate, tourism and transportation.

 Other approved investment proposals out of the 162 include the transformation of Oshodi, expected to materialise within the next 15 months; the Medical Park to be situated at the Old School of Nursing in Ikoyi and the Kuramo Island Resort.

He said that for any proposal to sail through the approval hurdle, both its financial and technical model must be sound, stressing that a streamlined process had been put in place to ensure that all proposals were fully dealt with within four weeks.

 He averred that the emergence of the Office of Overseas Affairs and Investment (Lagos Global) underscored the high premium that the Akinwunmi Ambode led administration placed on attracting investment into the state, both within and outside Nigeria.

The Special Adviser noted that the role of Lagos Global was not to serve as an implementing agency but to serve as a one-stop-shop, which receives proposals from investors and collaborates with relevant MDAs to serve as sector experts, providing advisory services to the office.

 To assist in performing this role, he said his office had instituted a class of Investment Champions who, as desk officers in their respective MDAs, would serve as interface between Lagos Global and MDAs.