By Adebayo Waheed
The director-general of the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA) and Executive Adviser to Governor Seyi Makinde on Agribusiness and International Cooperation, Dr Debo Akande, has disclosed that the state government has attracted about N46.6 billion investments into the state through agribusiness.
He maintained that Makinde’s vision to expand the state’s economy through agribusiness had fructified, with the state having accessed close to $170 million in agribusiness and international development funds. At the same time, about 14 large processing companies have also entered the state’s agribusiness space.
Akande, who stated this at the Omituntun 2.0 Inter-Ministerial Briefing held at the Governor’s Office Briefing Room, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, noted that the state had been able to achieve its deliverables in the agriculture and agribusiness sector, including mobilisation of international development resources, development of agriculture enablers such as industrial hubs, roads, rural security, and policy and legal instruments.
He added that the state had equally achieved its vision of supporting smallholder farmers, growing medium agribusinesses into large businesses, supporting youths and women in agriculture, opening a new frontier in value addition, and increasing livestock productivity and its value chain.
Akande noted that the state has developed a framework for the Livestock Value Chain and is constructing a Livestock Transformation Centre. This centre will produce the best cows in the Fasola Hub. At the same time, the same initiative will be repeated in the other agribusiness hubs.
According to him, the Oyo State government has also trained 5,020 youths in different areas of agribusiness, with about 1,000 of them with agribusiness enterprises set to benefit in an Oyo State Government/FCMB-facilitated support initiative to the tune of N1.5 billion in the next few weeks.
He added that the state has supported 46,000 smallholder farmers through OYSADA, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Agric-Credit Corporation of Oyo State. Several important roads and the ongoing construction of feeder roads have also enabled the state’s leap in agribusiness.