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By Lukman Olabiyi
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu yesterday, flagged off the construction of Africa’s largest food logistics park, in Ketu-Ereyun, Epe area of the state.
According to the governor, the project, Lagos State Food Security Systems & Central Logistics Hub would be built on 1.2 million square metres of land, and would have the following components: aggregation/storage facilities, administrative offices trading/brokering facilities, packaging facilities.
In addition, the project will also have processing facilities, cold chain/dry goods services, logistics services/ trailer park, water treatment plant, health centre, fuel station/ Fire station and abattoir .
Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony on Wednesday, Sanwo-Olu said: “the project will be implemented in two phases; the pilot phase, for which we are doing the groundbreaking; and the main phase. When completed, the hub will create wealth for more than 5 million people, feed more than 10 million Lagosians, guarantee food supplies for at least 90 days, provide storage facilities for more than 1,500 trucks per day, service the needs of thousands of operators per annum, and process large commercial transactions”.
The governor also added that the project would improve productivity, guarantee greater returns for farmers, by cutting out several layers of middlemen; facilitate improved access to modern processing and packaging services for farmers; and generate useful data for the use of government agencies, private sector players, and multilateral agencies.
Besides, he said, the hub would provide a better buying experience for consumers; help achieve a reduction in logistics costs, while guaranteeing the standardization of quantity and quality for agricultural products.
‘I can boldly say that this is one of the most important agricultural interventions that Nigeria has ever seen. The fact that it is taking place in Lagos, the most populous and fastest growing subnational entity in the country, means that it is bound to have significant national, regional, and continental impact”, boasted.
Sanwo-Olu affirmed that both Epe and Ikorodu divisions of the state before ending of the year would further witnessed various developmental projects which included commissioning of the Imota Rice Mill, Timberville for new Oko Baba among other ongoing projects in the area.
He also inspected the Psychiatric Hospital at Ketu Ereyun, Epe, Lagos
and some projects at the University of Science and Technology at Ikorodu/Itokin Road,.
Also reiterating benefit of the project, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Abisola Olusanya, said the project’s enormity and scope would change the economic landscape of Epe and Lagos as a whole and the project the largest in Africa would lead to an influx of services in sectors such as real estate sector, banking, logistics, hospitality sector and a host of others.
