The Governor with the team. |
The
Ogun State governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun has disclosed that Plans were underway
to have a Chinese company invest in the agricultural sector of the state
through the Public Private Partnership Program.
Prince
Abiodun who made this known in his office in Oke-Mosan, when he received a team
from the Africa Development bank who were on 3 day visit to the state, said
that his government was much aligned to investors coming in their large numbers
into the state.
The
governor affirmed his administration’s plan to backwardly integrate into the
Central Bank of Nigeria frame work which he said was meant to ban the provision
of foreign exchange to some food items.
Abiodun
said that once foreign exchange was removed from food items like rice, maize
and cassava, the local demand for the items would be stimulated, thereby
helping to stimulate the local production of the items.
He
noted that his administration would be focused on producing cassava, rice and
maize, with the believe that the focus would help to stimulate the local
economy as their won't be foreign exchange.
He
added that the state government would be engaging the Central Bank through its
different programs and also issue Certificate of Ownership to the farmers
"We
in Ogun state are keyed in on these items, these food items are going to be our
items of focus, our produce of focus, our crops of focus, we are going to be
focused on producing cassava,rice and maize, believing that will stimulate
local production, since their won't be forex for them.
"We
have engaged the Central Bank of Nigeria and they have different programs like
the anchor borrowers program, the Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme,
the Agro SMI Program, so we will provide the land for our youths and
cooperative, we will give them the certificate of ownership for those lands, as
it will give them a sense of ownership," he said
Abiodun
also said that his administration was poised to grow crops and go into the
business of producing live stocks ranging from poultry and fishery, adding that
with all the problems that was currently bewildering the country in the area of
cattle and ranching, the state government had decided to have its own ranch and
world class abattoir.
"In
view of all the issues that we have with cattle and ranching in the country
today, we have resolved we are going to have our own ranch in Ogun state, we
believe that we can have our ranch, a world class ranch, a world class abattoir
that can provide beef services to supermarkets, individuals," he said.
In
his remarks, the leader of the African Development Bank, Oladapo Olagoke,
said that the bank was looking at how it could use the agricultural potentials
of the state to empower its people, adding that the bank has come up with a
'Next Steps' model, which he said would help to take the discussion to a point
of reality.
Olagoke
disclosed that the bank was also willing to turn the state into the hub for
Agro Industrialization in the country by using the state as an example to
others in terms of creation of jobs for youths and how they could incorporate
and develop programs that would empower the private sector to drive the agenda
of agricultural transformation in the state.
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