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By Ismail Olatunji
In a city as vast, densely populated and commercially intense as Lagos, the question of food security cannot be reduced to how much food is produced. The harder question is how efficiently that food moves from the farm to the consumer.
That is the central idea behind Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s latest intervention: the inauguration of the Mid-Level Agro-Produce Hub in Agege. At first glance, the facility may look like another market infrastructure project. But its significance goes beyond the physical structure. It represents an attempt to redesign the way Lagos feeds itself, by shortening supply chains, improving storage, reducing post-harvest losses, creating jobs and connecting farmers more directly with one of Africa’s largest consumer markets.
That is a more strategic approach to food security. Lagos is not a major agricultural production state relative to its enormous appetite for food. As Governor Sanwo-Olu pointed out, more than 70 per cent of the food consumed in the state is produced outside its borders. Food, therefore, travels long distances before reaching Lagos markets, passing through multiple layers of transportation, aggregation and intermediation.
Every additional layer adds cost. Every delay increases the risk of spoilage. Every broken link in the chain can translate into higher prices for the consumer. The Agege hub is designed to tackle precisely these weaknesses. From food production to food systems
One of the strongest features of the Sanwo-Olu administration’s approach is its recognition that food security is not simply a farming problem. A state can train farmers, distribute agricultural inputs and support production, yet consumers may continue to face high food prices if the distribution system is inefficient.
The Lagos State Food Systems Transformation Agenda therefore seeks to address the entire chain, from production and aggregation to logistics, storage, processing and retail. The Agege facility is part of that broader architecture.
Built on 7,000 square metres, the hub provides modern trading floors, cold and dry storage facilities, parking, facilities for fisheries and aquaculture, a dedicated seafood section and electric vehicle charging points. Its dry stores have capacity for about 800 tonnes, while cold storage can accommodate approximately 300 tonnes of food. These are not insignificant additions to Lagos’ food infrastructure.
They address a practical problem that often receives insufficient attention in discussions about agriculture: food that has been produced is only economically valuable if it can reach consumers efficiently and in good condition.
Sanwo-Olu’s emphasis on shortening the farm-to-table chain also speaks directly to one of the most contentious issues in food distribution: the number of intermediaries between farmers and consumers.
Middlemen are not inherently unnecessary. They perform important functions in aggregation, transportation, financing and distribution. The problem arises when fragmented and inefficient intermediation creates excessive costs without adding commensurate value.
The Agege hub seeks to introduce greater structure into that process. Wholesalers and bulk dealers will supply retailers within the facility, reducing the need for small-scale traders to travel elsewhere to purchase food in small quantities and transport it back to their markets.
That could reduce transaction and transportation costs while making food distribution more predictable. The experience of the Mushin Fresh Food Hub offers an early indication of what this model could achieve. According to the governor, the Mushin facility has recorded transactions worth more than N4 billion across 228 market days, with over 850 registered vendors and more than 7,000 direct and indirect jobs created since its commissioning in December 2023.
If such outcomes can be replicated across the emerging network, the impact could extend beyond food prices to employment, entrepreneurship and local economic development. A network, not isolated projects
Perhaps the most important aspect of the initiative is that Agege is not being treated as a standalone project. It is the third hub in a growing network, following Mushin and Abijo in Ajah. Other locations are being developed or planned in Opebi, Bombata, Ikorodu, Apapa, Festac and the Lekki axis.
The administration’s long-term objective is even more ambitious: to establish structured food hubs across every Local Government and Local Council Development Area in Lagos. That network approach is important because Lagos’ food economy is too large and geographically dispersed to be adequately served by a single central facility.
The planned Lagos Central Food Systems and Logistics Hub at Ketu-Ereyun, Epe, is intended to serve as the flagship of the system. According to the governor, the facility is being developed with cold and dry storage, processing and repackaging centres, quality-control laboratories, warehouses, logistics bays and digital trading platforms.
It is projected to service more than 1,500 food trucks daily and handle over 1.5 million metric tonnes of food annually, with commissioning expected before the end of the administration.
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The strategic logic is clear: a central logistics hub provides scale, while mid-level hubs provide proximity. Together, they can potentially create a more integrated food-distribution ecosystem. This ensures connecting farmers to guaranteed demand.
Perhaps the most innovative component of the strategy is the Produce for Lagos Programme, launched alongside the N500 billion Offtake Guarantee Fund. Here, the administration is attempting to address one of agriculture’s perennial problems: farmers can produce without knowing whether they will secure a profitable market.
The demand-driven model seeks to reverse that equation. Instead of farmers producing first and searching for buyers afterwards, the programme seeks to organise production around the predictable demand of the Lagos market.
In addition, the well-thought out arrangement would further reduce distress sales, improve farmers’ incomes and encourage investment in agricultural production. It also creates a stronger relationship between Lagos and agricultural-producing states outside its borders.
That is important because Lagos cannot feed itself through production within Lagos alone. Its food security will necessarily depend on strong commercial relationships with farming communities across Nigeria.
These are the questions that should determine the ultimate assessment of the programme.
The Sanwo-Olu administration deserves recognition for approaching food security through infrastructure and systems rather than through isolated interventions. But infrastructure must be accompanied by effective management, transparent pricing, strong maintenance and continuous monitoring of outcomes.
Another encouraging dimension is the attempt to match physical infrastructure with human-capital development.
The governor said more than 125,800 farmers and fishermen had been trained in modern agricultural practices, while more than 4,000 young people had been equipped through the Lagos Agripreneurship Programme.
That is important because modern food systems require more than farmers. They require logistics specialists, aggregators, processors, cold-chain operators, digital traders, technicians, entrepreneurs and skilled managers.
The food hubs can therefore become more than places where food is bought and sold. They can become economic ecosystems. The deeper significance of the Agege hub is that it recognises a fundamental reality about Lagos: the city’s economic resilience is inseparable from the resilience of its food system.
Food inflation affects household welfare. Transportation costs affect prices. Post-harvest losses undermine farmers. Poor storage reduces supply. Inefficient markets weaken traders. Supply disruptions expose the vulnerability of an urban population dependent on food from distant locations.
Addressing these problems requires a system capable of absorbing shocks and moving food efficiently. That is what Sanwo-Olu’s food infrastructure strategy is attempting to build.
The Agege hub may therefore be modest when compared with the proposed central facility at Epe, but its significance lies in the network it represents.
It brings the food-system transformation agenda closer to ordinary Lagosians—in the neighbourhoods where people buy, sell and consume food every day.
Ultimately, the success of this strategy should be measured not simply by the number of hubs commissioned, but by Lagosians’ experience in the area of food affordable, and accessible.
• Olatunji writes from Lagos
