Lagos strategically positioned for agric investments – commissioner

Lagos State has further widened its arms to investors in agriculture, as Gbolahan Lawal, the state commissioner for agriculture and co-operatives weekend in Lagos said the state was strategically positioned for agricultural investors.

Lawal told the supervising team of the Staple Crop Processing Zones mission when they paid him a courtesy call in his office.

The commissioner said the various interventions by the Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP) under the World Bank Assisted Projects had brought about accelerated agricultural growth in the state. “The intervention in terms of infrastructure has accelerated agricultural growths in the state.

“Especially in the area of road network; in Ketu Ereyun Fish Farm Estate, we have investors coming into the state to be a part of the project. I must say Lagos is indeed strategically positioned for agricultural investors, making room for more jobs to be created,” Lawal said.

He further said this had led the state under the administration of Governor Babatunde Fashola to increase budgetary allocation to the sector by about 1,115 percent increase in the last six years. The commissioner said that he hoped that the master plan for Lagos State would be ready and implementation will kick start soon, saying the state was the market hub for farm produce from other parts of the country.

Giving his welcome address, Olajide Bashorun, represented by Funmilayo Bantefa, director of fisheries, encouraged the team to visit processing areas in the state, wishing the team a fruitful programme.

Salisu Garba, the project operations officer of CADP, who represented the national project co-ordinator, Amin Babandi, said the master plan would be implemented as soon as the documentation was in place.