Culled From Dr. Reuben Abati
No matter the imperfections of the Lagos State Government, the Governor and his team are great critical thinkers and doers. If every state we’re to embark on such projects as this it will surely give the country food security. While most.people.are fixated on who becomes President, it is quite evident that States and Local Governments are the closest to deliver dividends of democracy irrespective of who rules at the centre. Kudos to LASG and their development partners.
Last week, he invited me to visit the Food Logistics Hub that is being built in the Epe Division of the state. The plan is to commission the first phase of this Logistics Hub for Agriculture in May, 2025. It is located in Ketu-Ejinrin, a quiet, rural community that is about to be transformed. For over two hours, we inspected the vast farmland and food processing centre that is under construction.
The phase one sits on 2.2 million square metres of land, and when the hub is completed, it will occupy 4.2 million square metres. Origin Group and the Lagos Government are constructing a total of a 60-kilometre network of roads within the farm settlement. Eighteen kilometres is already built with full concrete, of about more than four metres in diameter.
Some of the facilities at the location include a weighbridge, an administrative block of five floors, a cold storage on 15, 000 square metres, a large dry store area, 11 dealing areas sitting on 7,000 square metres (eight nearing completion), storage silos of 1.5 million tonnes when fully completed, a clinic, and a truck terminal with a processing and parking capacity of 1, 560 trucks per day. When fully completed, this facility will be powered with a 4 MW gas plant, backed up with 27 MW of solar capacity.
The Lagos Food System hub is patterned after the Marche d’Interet National de Rungis in Paris, the largest food market in the world. A similar market co-operative is the Royal FloraHolland. The Lagos farm logistics hub is designed to sell wholesale products to traders who then distribute to other networks within the state. The objective, says Samuel, is to ensure market and price stability.
I marvelled at the expanse of land, stretching as far as the Lagoon with jetty locations abutting the farm. Five kilometres away is another farm, a ranch for cows. Over 250 million dollars have so far been spent. The workers at the location were all Nigerians including the engineers and security personnel.
“We could not have done this without Governor Sanwoolu”, he said. “If Dangote can build a whole refinery, that in itself is inspiring. Other entrepreneurs can do it. Governor Sanwoolu told me let’s do it. By the time you visit this site in another month, you’d be surprised.”
Would he opt for a Free Zone model? “No”, he retorted. “We don’t want customs disturbing our off-takers. Do you know what killed Tinapa? Brilliant idea. Free Trade Zone killed it.”
How about exports? “That is not our priority. The Governor wants the people of Lagos to get food at stable and affordable prices, that is his primary target.”
When we left Ketu-Ejinrin, our next stop was Abijo, near the Lagos Business School where Lagos State is building another Middle Level Market. “If you look around, you will see that markets in Lagos States developed organically. What Governor Sanwoolu is trying to do is to organize the farm to market value chain in line with world standards,” Prince Samuel said. The Abijo Market is the same as the one in Idi Oro, Mushin. Lagos State plans to build about 60 of such markets across the state. A beautiful structure, with ample parking space. The market is to be operated on a trade-as-you-go-basis. The market like the one in Idi-Oro is also open to all Lagosians.
I pointed out that I had seen something similar in Rwanda, Prince Samuel dismissed that quickly: “The Lagos vision is bigger than that!”
