Lagos State Agriculture Sector targets 3billion revenue In 2023

Luqmon Balogun, Lagos

The Lagos State Government said it has generated over 1billion naira revenue through its Agriculture sector in the last one year, as it targets over 3billion naira in the coming year.

The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms Abisola Olusanya gave this figure at the Lagos Food Festival held at Muri Okunola Park, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Olusanya explained that the State Agricultural Development plans have greatly assisted the Ministry to achieve this feat despite being faced with economic challenges posed both locally and from Global arena.

She mentioned that economy has not been friendly to investors and it’s players this year, but regardless, the Ministry still did all it could and its hoping to end the year on a good note.

“For 2022 we have generated over 1billion naira as at middle of November, so we are anticipating by the end of the year we should be touching about 1.2 billion

“Last year we generated just roughly a little over 1billion naira, but this year was tougher because due to election process, there was a glot in the system overall and the war in Europe between Ukraine and Russia and a lot of economic challenges and this actually impacted in a lot of our food processors and producers.”

“We made about 1billion naira last year for the very first time in the existence of the Ministry since 1967, and this year again we repeated it even under a more strenuous circumstances, meaning, if everything were to be so good, we should be crossing over 5 billion in revenue annually, then when you talk about new ideas, innovations and projects, it should be much more. So, we are hoping that next year we should be crossing the threshold of 3 billion naira. Its not a fluke that this Ministry is a billion naira Ministry industry, Its actually a billion dollar Industry.” she said

Food Inflation

Speaking on the current increase in food prices across the country and how to address food inflation in Lagos and Nigeria at large, the Commissioner said that there is a need to ensure Standardization, Price, Regulations, Product Quality Control among others, which the State has already started with its food system transformation program.

Olusanya noted that food inflation can only be curbed when Government is able to control the inflow of foods into the State.

According to her “Government must be able to control the inflow of foods into the State and in controlling this, that is what Sanwo-Olu’s administration has been doing by the launch of the, Food Logistics Park project in August, which is the first of its kind in sub Saharan Africa with over 1.2 million square meters of land, this is supposed to be a Food Aggregation Hub and it will help in curbing inflation.”

Looking ahead

Periscoping into the new year, the Commissioner prayed for a good 2023 and promised that the State plans to show results of its five year Agriculture Road Map to the public.

She also emphasised the need to continue training and capacity building for Agric entrepreneurs through the agricultural value chain enterprise activation Programme as well as Lagos Agriculture Scholars program for secondary school students.

She said “Besides the training and capacity building, for next year our target is also to collaborate more with our donor agencies and partners because Government cannot carry the burden of providing the infrastructure required for the Agriculture space, So many agencies have funds they are seeking for where to put them, they want agencies to showcase what they want to utilize the monies for and we have reached out numbers of them with our road map showing them that we have plans.”

Highlight of the Lagos State Food Festival was the display of culinary skills by the State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu who joined other international Chefs from Ghana, Kenya, Togo and Uganda in the contest to prepare the famous Jollof rice.

The State Government hopes to expand the yearly Food Festival into a more broader version.