Being the Remarks by His Excellency Seyi Makinde, Executive Governor of Oyo State at the Flag-Off of the Eruwa Agribusiness Industrial Hub, Eruwa on Thursday, 21 November 2024
About four years ago, we started what I would describe as a journey into making agribusiness one of the key drivers of the Oyo State economy. Immediately, we assumed office in 2019, we had taken steps to secure a loan taken by the last administration and our plan was to use this loan to ensure that two of the farm settlements, Akufo and Eruwa were converted into agribusiness industrial hubs. We started with a pilot project at Fasola to serve as a prototype for the hubs.
It was an ambitious project, because no State in Nigeria had embarked on a similar project. At first, we thought it would take about a year to complete the pilot project at Fasola. That was slightly over 1,000 hectares of land. As I said, thinking it could be completed in one year was ambitious.
The Fasola project has taught us various lessons which we are going to implement as we work on this project at Eruwa. In fact, the Fasola project has served as a learning point not only for us, but for other States in Nigeria and other countries in Africa, that have come to see what we have accomplished there. We have had official visitors from Ogun, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kogi, Cross River, Delta, Bayelsa, Kwara, Yobe, Plateau, Gombe, Niger, Taraba, Adamawa, Borno, Ondo, Ekiti, Bauchi and Nasarawa States as well as from Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Kenya and Guinea.
And so today, as we flag off this over 3,000 hectares Eruwa project, we are mindful of the fact that we are taking on a project three times the size of Fasola. We are happy to be joined on this journey by development partners and the private sector.
As you have already heard from the Director General of the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA), by the way OYSADA is the special purpose vehicle that we are using to drive agribusiness in Oyo State; the Eruwa Agribusiness Industrial Hub will be divided into segments. We are ensuring that this project covers every aspect of the agriculture value chain.
This is why we have large-scale mechanised crop processing and livestock ranching facilities, processing facilities, warehouses to store finished products, a resort promoting agri-tourism, residential properties for workers, creche facilities for children, emergency fire services, healthcare facilities, equipment leasing facilities, and electricity and water will be provided from the Eruwa Waterworks in this hub.
We are indeed grateful to the African Development Bank (AfDB), represented on this occasion by the Director General Nigeria Country Department, Dr Abdul Kamara for working with us on this project through the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) programme. We are excited to be part of the phase 1 of the SAPZ programme in Nigeria and we believe this would be a purveyor of even greater collaborations between the Oyo State Government and the AfDB.
We also extend special thanks to the private sector participants who have, based on the work we did at Fasola, already indicated interest to work with us here at Eruwa.
Let me also use this opportunity to urge the good people of Eruwa to be gracious hosts just as the people of Fasola are to the agribusinesses there. The project at Fasola has put that town in Oyo Zone on the international agricultural map. We believe that this Eruwa Agribusiness Industrial Hub will serve the same purpose by putting this town in Ibarapa Zone on the international agricultural map and contribute greatly to making Oyo State the centre of commercial agriculture and agri-tourism.
We look forward to returning here in for the commissioning of this project. Yes, we expect this to be completed faster than Fasola because we have learnt our lessons from that pilot project.
On this note, I will proceed to the official flag-off through turning of the sod for the Eruwa Agribusiness Industrial Hub to the glory of God and for the benefit of the good people of Oyo State.
Thank you and God bless you.
Seyi Makinde
21 November 2024