Lagos 2023: ADC’s Funso Doherty reveals plans for SMEs and creative young people

The ADC flagbearer for the Lagos governorship race, revealed his agenda at the unveiling of his running mate, Mrs Rosemary Giwa-Amu, on Friday, September 09, 2022.

Addressing a question by the observing Pulse reporter on his plan for the Lagos youths, Doherty first identified the related problems, and offered his solution.

Funso Doherty identifies issues of creative youths in Lagos: “If you think about the youth today and why many of them are disenfranchised, why many of them struggle, it is because they almost feel excluded, from the system because they’ve gone through the educational system which does not necessarily prepare them well. They have come out into a job markets they are not prepared for and they cant find gainful employment.

“If you think about who is most affected by the self-selling actions of government, It is the youths. Resources that should fund education and health are being redirected into private properties.

Funso Doherty gives his solutions: “If we expanded our educational system such that for example, we improved vocational options including the the creative economy, which is a cardinal policy that we’ve been talking about, we’d see a lot of improvement in employment rates.

“You know, not everybody is interested in the desk job. Not everybody is gifted to be the best at office jobs. People have created a different ways of adding value, and our education system must be comprehensive enough to accommodate all, and allow all to develop together.

“In a commercial City like Lagos, creatives and technocrats are the people who go on to Establish small businesses and then employ two three four people rather than roaming the streets for years after graduation. The government should support them in management.

“This is a cardinal policy of ADC. Everything we do recognizes the importance of the young population.

Funso Doherty to ease business management in Lagos: “One of the Cardinal programs that we have is is around ease of doing business for small businesses in particular, and medium size businesses, and you know that a lot of the businesses in this space (Lagos).

“So our policy is that government should reduce the regulatory parties for those businesses, and to a large extent its taxation. The tax burden also within the framework of resources have to be switched so that those businesses can stand.”

Doherty explained that with this, businesses can expand, employing more individuals and reducing the unemployment and crime rate in the state. He added that our country’s technocrats can build a Silicon Valley in Nigeria.

Speaking on his running mate: “I am very excited to be joined in ticket with a distinguished personality, someone who has served the state, party and communities in the state.

“She (Giwa-Amu) has brought capacity to bear in serving the people. She is a mystery super woman,” Mr Doherty said.

He said that he consulted “far and wide” before picking his running mate.

After completing NYSC in 1991, Funso applied, interviewed and was selected for a coveted position in the Lagos office of Arthur Andersen & Co. (now KPMG) earning the (then princely) sum of approximately N1,800 per month. He spent three years at the Firm, being trained locally and internationally and rising quickly to the position of Senior. Not wanting to make a career in accounting practice, he left the Firm in 1994, after successfully completing the qualifying examinations of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.