The Lagos State Government has identified and mapped about 3,700 hectares of informal urban spaces across 1,700 locations as part of efforts to regulate activities taking place in public and incidental spaces across the state.
The General Manager of the Lagos State Informal Space Management Authority (LASISMA), Daisi Oso, disclosed this while appearing on The Conversation, a programme on Lagos Television.
Oso said the exercise was being carried out in partnership with the private sector to identify, measure, reclaim, restore and designate critical spaces for temporary use, particularly for informal activities that could obstruct walkways, roadsides and other public corridors.
He explained that the initiative was designed to balance the need to accommodate informal businesses with the government’s responsibility to preserve public spaces, safety and physical order in Lagos, where available land is increasingly limited.
“Planning is a process. We must plan for and with our people. We can create business locations that will not jeopardise our informal spaces,” he said.
According to him, the mapped areas include setbacks, incidental open spaces and public corridors that have increasingly become locations for informal commercial activities.
Oso stressed that the government’s policy was not intended to prevent legitimate businesses from operating, but to regulate activities that occupy informal and incidental spaces in ways that obstruct movement, compromise safety or damage the physical environment.
“You cannot clutter our walkways, roadsides and high-tension corridors. You cannot clutter lives,” he said.
He disclosed that the state government had also approved a partnership with Octagon to identify and map spaces considered critical to the management of informal activities.
The mapped locations, he said, would be assessed and appropriately designated to determine permissible temporary uses, with the broader aim of improving physical orderliness, urban aesthetics and sustainable land use.
Oso added that LASISMA had intensified public sensitisation and the issuance of contravention notices to discourage illegal occupation and encroachment on walkways, roadsides and high-tension corridors.
He said bollards were also being strategically installed to mark areas where commercial and other activities were prohibited.
The LASISMA boss urged residents and informal sector operators intending to use such spaces to consult the agency before commencing activities, noting that the authority was responsible for determining permissible uses.
Members of the public can make enquiries at the LASISMA office at 18G Olutoye Crescent, Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja, while technical officers can be reached on 08023044911 and 07061005525 for further clarification.
The development comes as Lagos continues to face growing pressure on its limited urban space, particularly from commercial activities on walkways, setbacks, roadsides and other open areas.
LASISMA said its objective was to bring such activities under a regulatory framework while preserving public corridors and spaces needed for safe and orderly urban development.