NSIA, Lafarge, Ogun partner on State’s Forest Landscape Restoration Project

The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), Ogun State Government and Lafarge Africa Plc on Thursday announced a partnership that would enable them jointly develop Ogun State Forest Landscape Restoration Project.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed during President Buhari’s state visit to France, will enable the creation of a legal entity to develop the project, engage development agencies and climate change funds, and promote it to large agriculture and forestry investors.

NSIA said in a statement last night that the project is set to transform 108,000 hectares of heavily degraded land into an arable green area. It is designed to employ innovative approaches to achieve best-of-breed environmental, social and economic results. The scheme’s uniqueness rests in the way it combines land restoration with business
development objectives by applying the latest findings of agro-ecology and agro-forestry.

The first part of the area will be rehabilitated through mixed reforestation to provide biodiversity hotspots corridors, allowing nomadic herders to cross the area with their herds and encouraging subsistent farming. The other part will be leased to agro-industrial investors interested in the development of large-scale tree crop such as cacao, coffee, rubber and oil palm as well as annual crops such as maize, sesame, cotton and cassava amongst others. Forestry projects within strict social and environmental guidelines may also be considered.

“The NSIA Act permits us to participate in infrastructure projects of this nature. We are therefore committed not only to promoting economic development but also to stimulating greater environmental responsibility through the projects we support and participate in,” Uche Orji, Managing Director/CEO of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment
Authority was quoted as saying in the statement.

According to him, the NSIA views this project as an important investment in sustainable development and remains focused on facilitating incremental participation in initiatives that reduce carbon footprint across the country and reverse deforestation for the benefit of future generations of Nigerians’.

The statement quoted Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State as noting that the project will help restore and enhance the state’s forests benefits the environment and creates jobs in rural communities.

“Increasing the pace and scale of restoration of forests is critically needed to address a variety of threats – including fire, climate change, deforestation and others – for the benefit of our ecosystems and forest-dependent communities. This project will show that enterprise and achieving strong mitigation are mutually supportive in tropical agriculture,” he added.

In his speech, Peter Hoddinott, Group Managing Director/CEO Lafarge Africa noted that a strong commitment to the environment and social sustainability of our operations and of the communities within which they operate leads them naturally to support Ogun State projects that promise strong positive impact on these issues, particularly on
climate change.

”The use of agro-ecology and agro-forestry principles in these projects will increase their productivity, ensuring the land becomes one of Nigeria’s best carbon capture areas and generating biomass that Lafarge intends to use to fire its cement kilns,” he added.

Onyinye Nwachukwu