In line with the commitment to ensure food security and inclusive economic growth, Lagos State Government has engaged both local and foreign investors on the need to invest in the State’s food value chain.
Speaking at the 2022 Breakfast Meeting on “Investing in the Lagos Food Value Chain”, Special Adviser to the Governor on Sustainable Development Goals and Investment, Mrs. Solape Hammond explained that the Government is focused on transiting the state from a consuming state to a new productive hub.
The meeting, according to her, is to further showcase the comparative advantage the state has over other competing states in the food value chain and encourage investors to explore opportunities in the upstream, midstream and downstream sector in agriculture across the state.
“Despite Lagos being the export hub of Nigeria, more than 70%of what she consumes is imported. We want a new form of investment to flow into food and agriculture systems. We want companies to establish here and export to the rest of Africa”,She said.
Hammond in a statement signed by the Deputy Director, Public Affairs SDGs and Investment Sanusi Abdulateef Olailjide noted that the Lagos State Agricultural and Food Road Map (2021–2025) which focuses on eight sectors including coconut, piggery, rice, sea food, fisheries, red meat and several other areas was crafted to bring sanity into the agricultural value chain.
“The whole idea is for the state to be relatively food sufficient, which we realised was a core need after the impact of COVID-19 as we struggled to feed over 22 million Lagosians as we are not really food sufficient”, she revealed.
She stressed that the state wants to optimize the Africa Free Trade Agreement by leveraging on the opportunities to engage in large scale agricultural business for the state’s economy to be more resilient.
“Lagos has eight free zones that make it easier for investors to plug and play. We are building standard factories in our free zones, we have port access, we have airport access and more than 70% of cargo comes through the State.
In her words, “Having the largest rice mill in Africa and 5th in the world which is billed for commissioning and production in November and construction of the largest Food Security Systems and Central Logistics Park in sub-Saharan Africa put the state in good stead towards food sufficiency”.
She said, the food processing market which is the first of the three food market logistics hubs will help bring sanity into the food system across the State.
We want to know the amount of food that comes into the state, where it is coming from and the condition of these food. This will help us to guide against food wastage and unhealthy food.
Food prices in Lagos are on the high side compared to other urban cities in the country. We want to create more visibility, to attract investment in order to make food sufficient and affordable to the people.
While making his remark on food sustainability, the Special Adviser on Agriculture, Dr. Oluwarotimi Fashola affirmed that investment abounds in the food value chain as more effort and innovation are needed to sustainably increase agricultural production and improve the supply chain.
“As the environment for food and agricultural production is increasingly challenging, new patterns of food system governance are required “, he revealed.
Fashola maintained that there are opportunities for many Investment and the State Government will continue to explore the Public -Private Partnership model to complement policies and initiatives for
The event had in attendance, British Deputy High Commissioner, Mr. Ben Llewellyn-Jones, Consulate General of UAE, Netherlands and Sweden, the American, French, German, Indonesian and Brazilian Chambers of Commerce; the Director General, DAWN Commission, Mr. Seye Oyeleye; Members of the Organised Private Sector and Stakeholders in the business community.
Representative of Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives; Permanent Secretary, Office of SDGs and Investment, Mrs. Abosede George; Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on SDGs, Mr. Lekan Fatodu.