A commodities exchange was also set up (on Broad Street) to trade agricultural products from the farms and raw materials for the farms and processing facilities.
Lagos govt to upscale Imota rice milling plant from 2.5 to 16 metric tonnes per hour
By Agency Report April 25, 2017
As part of plans to ensure food self-sufficiency, especially through rice production, the Lagos State Government says it is up-scaling the Imota Rice Milling Plant from 2.5 metric tons to 16 metric tons.
The Commissioner for Agriculture, Toyin Suarau, who made the disclosure on Tuesday at a Ministerial Press Briefing to mark Governor Akinwumi Ambode’s second year in office, said the plant would be delivered within one year.
Mr. Suarau said that the plant would be the biggest in Nigeria when delivered and also drive the state’s major goal to scale up food sufficiency from 12 per cent to 25 per cent in three years.
“The ministry is mandated to facilitate sustainable food production, poverty reduction and job creation through several agriculture projects and programmes.
“The major goal of the ministry is to make the state food secured and scale up food self-sufficiency from the current 12 per cent to 25 per cent within the next three years.
“It is part of plans to ensure that the production of Lake Rice and to stop milling rice paddy in other states like Kebbi, Jigawa and Kano states.
“We have begun plans to up Imota rice milling plant from 2.5 metric tons per hour to 16 metric tons per hour within the next one year,” he said.
Mr. Suarau said the project was not rocket science because it took a lot of time to set up since the machines would be imported from outside the country.
The commissioner also said that since the state started sales of the Lake Rice in December 2016, 35,647 bags of 50kg, 32,539 of 25kg and 30,786 of 10kg had been sold.
He added that to boost rice production, 100 farmers through the FADAMA III additional financing programme, rice cultivation had improved from less than one ton to about three tons per hectare in the state.
Mr. Suarau noted that the state was embarking on several initiatives to boost food production in the areas of input supplies, estate initiatives, Agriculture Youth Empowerment Scheme, Rice for Jobs.
Also, Avia-Badagry Farm Service/Entrepreneurship Center and Coconut Development and Commercial Agriculture Development Project are among the initiatives.
Mr. Suarau dispelled the rumour that the sale of Lake Rice had been hijacked by money bags and compelled members of the public to come up with proof for the law to take its course. (NAN)
Fashola Commissions 20,000 Metric Tonnes Imota Rice Mill by Nigeria Indicator the factory has been completed and the main product (well polished rice) compares favourably with the best quality rice from any part of the world and is estimated to produce between 350,000 and 400,000 bags of rice every year.
Everyone knows that when a person dies, close family members (sons, daughters, wife, etc) sit, while others come to them to give their condolences, but people are acting like it's something new, just because they want attention.
I don't know why people are engaging trolls on this thread.
There are people that come here to post something negative, even if what they are posting makes no sense at all (imagine someone saying that Lagos should leave Niger State and partner with Oyo. Why should Lagos leave Niger?
Imagine people that know quite well that this practice has been on since the days when Fashola was governor, saying that the agreement was signed because of something that Peter Obi said recently, just because they want to generate reactions)
These people deserve to be completely ignored. Just ignore them like I do. Only engage with people that have something sensible to contribute. Those people are only looking for attention and the best thing is to starve them of that attention.
Five of us embarked on that journey and flew from London to Palm Springs, USA. Our luggage could not go with the chopper, so I decided to go with the luggage, and Dr. Wigwe agreed it was a brilliant idea.
HERBERT WIGWE’S LAST DAY BY HIS P.A. SOLA FALEYE
Five of us embarked on that journey and flew from London to Palm Springs, USA. Our luggage could not go with the chopper, so I decided to go with the luggage, and Dr. Wigwe agreed it was a brilliant idea. pic.twitter.com/a1qbEPDbej
A former Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, broke down in tears on Wednesday while paying tribute to former Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, Herbert Wigwe.
Addressing the crowd present for the night of tribute to the 57-year-old, the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor said he was thinking he would leave Herbert.
“I was thinking I would die and leave Herbert. We have all heard about him, about his loyalty,” he said in an emotionally laden voice.
He recalled how the late banker stood by his side all through his travails after being removed as Emir of Kano by former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.
According to the former Emir, Herbert assured him of his unflinching support and loyalty.
To match words with action, Lamido said Herbert provided a plane for him at the tarmac in Kano to convey him to Lagos.
“When I had problems in Kano, I called him about six months before I was told to leave Kano. I said to him, ‘Herbert I know you are doing all your best to solve all these problems, but I am convinced that this is what is going to happen.
“He said to me, ‘Your Highness, don’t worry. Whatever happens, don’t worry. We are here for you.’ On the day I heard on the radio that I was dethroned, I called him and said I wanted to come to Lagos.
“The announcement was made about 9 am, by noon Herbert had a plane at the tarmac in Kano. The plan then was to take me into exile for many years. I put my family on that plane and sent them to Lagos, with no phone calls. Herbert received them and put them in a hotel.
“Later, he got them accommodation. For months, when I came, they stayed there. Your Highness, if you want to travel, just call Shola.”
The former CBN said the late Access Bank CEO and his partner Aig Imoukhuede, were crucial to his success during his five-year stint at the apex bank.
He also narrated how they helped resolve a serious challenge in the banking sector at the time.
“The objective then was to link the banking sector assets to the real economy and Aig and Herbert in Access Bank were chosen as the chairpersons on the subcommittee on economic development. Most of what I achieved in the Central Bank would not have been possible without them.”
“About two years ago, I put all my savings in a trust for the education of my children because I have many. My priority as a father is to make sure that when I pass away, they will have a good education.
“Paul was a solicitor put in that trust, Herbert was the lead protector. Paul will remember when we had the first formal meeting, I said, ‘Herbert I am placing you in charge of this trust for the education of my children because I know that even if I died and did not leave any money, you will educate our children,” he said.
FG Pays Glowing Tribute To Late Banking Titan, Herbert Wigwe, Family
* He bloomed long before his co-travellers- VP Shettima
Vice President @KashimSM on Wednesday led the nation to mourn former Group Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, Chief Herbert Wigwe, and his family, who tragically died in a helicopter crash in the United States of America.
Senator @KashimSM, in a lyrical eulogy, described the late @HerbertOWigwe as an early bloomer who transformed the Nigerian banking industry, recalling his visionary leadership and unwavering dedication to his community.
Addressing a crowd of mourners in Lagos during the funeral service of the late banker, the Vice President said, "Herbert left us in winter before the season of bloom. Spring was just about to arrive at his last location, the United States when the Lord called for him.
“Spring is not the symbol of Herbert’s bloom; his journey was defined by peculiar seasons. He bloomed long before his co-travellers.
“This spring, for us, isn’t the season of festive flowers; it’s the season of wreaths. This spring, for us, isn’t a season of tears; it’s a celebration of Herbert’s flight to a height that only a few of God’s chosen ones have attained.”
Delivering his speech titled, "Herbert Wigwe: The Flower That Bloomed Before Spring," the VP highlighted Wigwe's early successes, his dream of building the "Harvard of Africa," and his commitment to leaving a lasting legacy.
"Herbert, though an early bloomer in the garden of life, didn't share the fate of those who faded away prematurely. His narrative was one of triumph. He conquered all there was to conquer," he said.
VP @KashimSM also regretted the tragic loss of Wigwe's wife, son, and others, describing the loss as a collective grief felt by many and a "fading fragrance of a garden that touched lives far beyond its borders".
He however urged Nigerians to celebrate "the divine miracle that was the lives the deceased lived," adding that "the spread of this grief that binds us is so because they cultivated a garden of success."
@KashimSM continued: "Their achievements were not just individual triumphs but testaments to the collective strength of those they touched, those they built, and those they inspired.
"The journey of our departed brothers and sisters may have ended in a distant land, but their spirits linger in the hearts of everyone here and beyond," the Vice President added. "May Herbert's legacy continue to bloom in the hearts and minds of those who strive for greatness."
tollyboy5: Lake rice is not the argument. What we're trying to prove is that this initiative has been for long before some people start attributing it to Peter obi idea
That's not what that post is about. That post is referring to people who say that this deal is fake because they no longer see LAKE Rice. How will they still expect to see LAKE Rice when it has been superseded by Eko Rice?
I know when the idea started, this is my previous post on this thread. Make sure you click the links to see when the idea started.
Dear diary, I have told you about the mega city status of Lagos and how people like Bola Tinubu, Olusegun Obasanjo, Gbenga Daniel and Babatunde Fashola tried to create measures to tackle the challenges posed by having such a large number of people in such a small area.
Whenever we think of these measure, we often think of physical infrastructure that would counter the challenges in transportation (rail, ferry, buses, etc), healthcare (more hospitals and clinics), education (more schools and classrooms) and security (more policemen and more equipment), but we hardly think about the stomach.
Yes, the stomach! If you have so many people in such a small area, then all those stomachs must be fed. The increase in population will create the problem of too many people chasing too few food. This will lead to massive increases in the price of food. How do you solve this problem?
In the old days
I remember that, once upon a time, in the era of Governors Jakande, Aikhigbe and Rasaki, the government established farm settlements in rural parts of Lagos. These farm settlements were set up to resolve several problems at once. They provided employment, they were a source of revenue for the government, they provided training and skills acquisition and they were a source of food for Lagos (this was important especially after the food crisis of 1982 and 1983).
The government set up farm settlements in places like Ojo, Badagry, Lekki, Ibeju Lekki, Ikorodu and Epe and youths and other people were encouraged to go and work on the farms.
The modern era.
However, this idea will not solve the problem today. Lagos is one of the smallest states in Nigeria and its population has exploded beyond what the produce from the farm settlements can satisfy.
Besides, due to the population explosion, the city is rapidly expanding and those places that were rural areas in the 1980s are now part of the city. I remember when Lekki was just a large bush filled with lots of swamps and elephant grass, but now it is one of the fastest growing corridors in Africa. Ibeju Lekki will soon also join Lekki to become one of the fastest growing areas in Africa. The Ojo and Badagry areas will rapidly become urban when the Blue Line rail project and the various projects in Badagry (port, refinery, energy city) are completed. The City of Lagos has already spread to include Ikorodu. Therefore, there are not enough rural areas in which to establish farm settlements.
Governor Babatunde Fashola decided to solve this problem through a three-pronged approach.
3) He also decided that Lagos should not only be involved in producing raw food, rather it should be involved in processing food. This is the topic of this post - Lagos' efforts to process food.
Governor Fashola decided to establish a rice mill in Imota.
Imota is an area between Ikorodu and Epe, right on the border between Lagos and Ogun States. It is the site of one of the old farm settlements that I wrote about earlier.
Governor Fashola built a 20,000 metric tonnes rice mill at Imota, so that the rice that is grown in those farms that Lagos acquired outside the state can be processed at the mill and this will further provide employment for the people of Lagos. Rice is one of the most consumed foodstuff in Lagos.
However, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode came and pulled down what Fashola built because he wanted to build an even bigger rice mill on the site (probably the biggest in Africa). Governor Ambode wanted to increase the capacity of the mill from 2.5 to 16 metric tonnes per hour. This obviously delayed the project and it could not be completed before Ambode left office. (The agreement between Lagos and Kebbi State led to the production of Lake Rice. Lake = LAgos and Kebbi).
Governor Sanwo-Olu was determined to complete the project and it is currently being test-run. It is most likely going to be one of the projects that President Buhari will commission when he visits Lagos in January.
The Story
Now to the meat of the matter.
There is a former Nairalander who was one of my followers when he was a member of this site. I considered him to be one of the sensible Nairalanders. However, unfortunately, something happened to him ahead of the 2015 elections. It seems like he became deeply and emotionally involved in those elections. He started posting strange things and I was wondering, "Surely he must know that those things that he is posting are not true".
Anyway, he deactivated his Nairaland account after the elections.
Someone tweeted a video of the the trial run of the Imota Rice Mill and this guy replied with, "This is not the job of the government, and the reason will become clear soon enough. Check back in a year".
Unfortunately for him, there were two problems. (1) He didn't know enough about the project to enable him make an informed criticism and (2) the person that he responded to has a lot (a very large number) of militant followers.
You see, the government is not going to run the plant. Governor Fashola was known for despising new government parastatals and preferring to let the private sector run things (I will write more about this in my transport series), so you wouldn't expect him to create a government run mill.
The fact of the matter is that the Lagos State Government has signed an agreement with the West African Cotton Company (WACOT), which is one of the largest agro-processing companies in Nigeria, to ensure that WACOT runs the Imota Rice Mill. The former Nairalander did not know this.
He was roasted for several hours. It was almost a full day by the time I saw the tweet and they were still attacking him. He made another tweet in which he said that people were attacking him simply because he said that government shouldn't run a rice mill, but someone replied that it was the way he said it that made people attack him, while another person replied that he lied and that's why people are attacking him.
It seems like some of the people that are attacking him actually know him, because they claim that he never sees anything good in anything that government does.
He responded to a tweet that asked, "What do you fear most", with "Tinubu supporters".
I need to go and check if they've stopped attacking him.
Side story
This reminded me of another person. There is a former moderator on Nairaland who I have always assumed was a serious and sensible person. He sometimes asks me questions and I answer if I can. However, the guy has started doing something really strange and this has forced me to put him on my ignore list.
The guy began asking me questions, for example about the Imota Rice Mill, as if I am the one that is personally constructing the mill. I'm not sure if I've ever discussed the mill with him, but, the construction of the mill was delayed because Governor Ambode decided to expand it and this guy started questioning me as if I was responsible for the delay.
That's when I realised that he was not serious at all and decided to put him in my ignore list. All the information that I post is publicly available, so he should go and search for it if he really wants to know.
I think I should provide a summary before I go on.
1) Governors Jakande, Akhigbe and Rasaki established farm settlements in rural parts of Lagos.
2) Lagos' population grew beyond what the farm settlements could cater for. Besides, rural parts of Lagos were quickly being swallowed by the urban areas.
3) Governor Fashola signed agreements with other states like Ogun, Oyo, etc to establish farms there. The food will be sold in Lagos and Lagos youths will work on the farms.
4) Governor Fashola also built a rice mill.
5) Governor Ambode brought down the rice mill that Fashola built and began buidling an even bigger mill (I think it's one of the biggest in Africa).
6) He signed an agreement with Kebbi State to produce LAKE Rice in the meantime, while the mill was being built.
7) Governor Sanwo-Olu finished the rice mill. Now there's no need for LAKE Rice because rice is being milled in Lagos. Instead we have Eko Rice (see below).
Agric Yes program: Over 300 youths empowered in Lagos
September 27, 2012 BY DANIEL ETEGHE
The Lagos State Agriculture Youth Empowerment Scheme, popularly known as “Agric-YES” aimed at empowering youths, has s far empowered over three hundred youths with an additional one hundred participants undergoing training at the moment.
Course Officer for Vegetable , Mr. Hakeem Anjolaiya, who disclosed this at the institute training centre at Epe, said that the overall aim of the scheme is to breed a new generation of agro-entrepreneurs in poultry, fish farming, bee-keeping and all season vegetable farming.
BY DANIEL ETEGHE The Lagos State Agriculture Youth Empowerment Scheme, popularly known as “Agric-YES” aimed at empowering youths, has s far empowered over three hundred youths with an additional one hundred participants undergoing training at the moment.
Course Officer for Vegetable , Mr. Hakeem Anjolaiya, who disclosed this at the institute training centre at Epe, said that the overall aim of the scheme is to breed a new generation of agro-entrepreneurs in poultry, fish farming, bee-keeping and all season vegetable farming.
Anjolaiya said the students of the institute normally go through six months intensive training and also a period of internship before they are left on their own as full fledged farmers.
He explained that after the training, the government gives the participants money and some plots of land to assist them to go into mechanized agriculture.
“Since this programme started in 2009, we have trained about 300 youths and we are in the fourth batch of training 100 of them. We train them in poultry farming, crop farmers, fish farmers meat production and so on
“We get our students through advertisement in the media after that we conduct a test for them, we usually collect 36 female and 64 males for each batch of student to sum up as 100 participants for a session” he said.
He further noted that after the training that the participants would be divided into co-operatives and each co-operative would be given the sum of N100million to carry out their agricultural venture.
According to him, “apart from the N100million, the participants were also given accommodation where they can live with their own families. We also have a fully automated layer pen where we generate 500 crates of eggs per day, people are coming to buy them and we move out as much that we can produce. We can’t even meet the demand of the market now”
Also speaking during the chat, the Project Officer, Ram Ranch, Mr. Johnson Oluwashola disclosed that the institute has between 1,000 and 1,500 rams.
He explained that the rams were brought into the farm at five months old where they were trained to maturity, stressing that though they were not involved in the breeding process of the rams, that the institute will soon embark on breeding at the ram ranch in the nearest future.
Johnson said the success recorded at the farm is part of the state government’s investment in agriculture as a way of job creation and food security in the state.
Rice for job is another lucrative project that has helped to provide job opportunities to most youths as well as increase the volume of rice produced in the state.
At the Imota rice processing mill still in Ikorodu, a consultant to the Lagos state government on rice project, Dr. Oluwa Rotimi Fashola pointed out that rice that were processed at the mill were far better that those polished rice that are in the market because of the nutrient inherent in it.
He said that the mill has three main buildings where you have the paddy that is raw rice brought from the farm to main building where the rice is processed and to the store room where it is stored before it is dispatched to the market.
According to him, “we produce 2.5 tones per hour and an approximate 15,000 to 20,000 thousand tones per annum which is about four hundred bags of 50kg rice.”
Asked the type of rice that they deal on, Dr. Fashola said”Eko rice is a special brand of rice which is FARO 44 or FARO 52. We use this type of grain of rice for uniformity and that helps in monitoring the standard that we produce. We specialize in doing per-boiled rice. We supply our rice to the government within the ministry and within the Alausa axis”
One of the beneficiaries of the Rice for Job project, Mr. Adeniyi Ayino said that the programme has helped him a lot adding that now he could operate a tractor very well and work perfectly as a rice farmer.
“It is an interesting programme, it is a good opportunity for youths today and because we want to participate in the solution in ensuring food security in Lagos state that is why some of us go into agriculture” he said.
As for Mrs. Bolaji Dania, a fish farmer in one of the agric estates, the Lagos state government has helped farmers a lot in the state by assisting them with feeds adding that the government went as far as providing the needed information to farmers on how to improve their farms.
Mrs. Dania who is into Cat fish farming said” I am proud of the government because they have made things easy for farmers like us, being on this estate to farm has helped me a lot in getting access to information from the government, government also subsidise some of the products for us and I was even opportune to get loan from the World Bank through the assistance of the government.
Mrs. Diana further said” I started fish farming with three pounds on one plot 5 years ago and now I have 18 pounds on three plots of land.
EkoIle1: LASG To Harvest Farm Produce From 10,000 Hectares Of Land
Posted By On October 23, 2012 @ 1:13 pm In Business,Business News | No Comments
The Lagos State Government is to harvest farm produce from 10,000 hectares of land it acquired in other states before the end of the year, says Governor Babatunde Fashola.
Fashola, who spoke at an event marking the World Food Day in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, said the government had acquired land in Osun, Ogun and Oyo states, among others to cultivate farm produce.
According to him, “the farm produce from these farms are expected in the state before the end of this year,” adding that the government was determined to feed the populace with what it produced.
The governor urged farmers and producers of agricultural products to take advantage of the various initiatives in the sector as well as the opportunities provided through cooperative societies for their personal and collective good.
Fashola, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Oluranti Adebule, said the government was striving to ensure food security in the state.
He said the theme of the celebration, which is “Agricultural Cooperatives: Key to Feeding the World,” was very relevant to the initiatives being adopted to address food shortages worldwide.
Fashola added that the need to increase food production through cooperative activities could not be over emphasized in view of the estimated 925 million hungry people in the world today and 70 percent living in the rural areas where agriculture remained the main source of survival and sustenance.
Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Prince Gbolahan Lawal said efforts had been made to improve productivity in agriculture by focusing on the whole value chain with emphasis on enterprises where the state had comparative advantage.
He stated that the state’s involvement in agriculture was to attain food security and job creation to which all stakeholders, particularly those in agricultural estates had contributed immensely.
“Farmers have been linked effectively to markets creating job opportunities in poultry, agriculture, fisheries and horticulture in the state,” he added.
Nigeria’s Lagos state, home to the country’s biggest city, may buy land elsewhere in the nation to grow rice to meet the city’s needs.
The state is already introducing irrigation and encouraging mechanization to boost rice production, Rotimi Fashola, a consultant at the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Co- operatives, told the Rice Africa Outlook conference in Durban, South Africa, today.
“We cannot rely on imports,” he said. “We are looking to acquire land in neighboring states as Lagos is land poor.”
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is the biggest consumer and importer of rice on the continent. The country is forecast to import about 1.9 million metric tons of the grain this year, or about 41 percent of its 4.65 million ton forecast consumption, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which also forecast production at 2.7 million tons.
“Lagos is a microcosm of greater Nigeria,” Fashola said. “Its 18 million inhabitants consume the most par-boiled rice in the world, with an average of 34 kilograms per person per annum.”
Fashola estimates of production and imports are higher than those of the USDA. Legal imports into Nigeria are about 1.6 million tons a year and another 450,000 tons are smuggled from neighboring Benin, he said. Production is 3.4 million tons, he said.
FreeStuffsNG: This is an initiative started by HE Ambode when he signed same Agric produce farming MOU with then Kebbi State Governor, HE Bagauda, now the current Minister of National Budget and Planning.
It's great that HE Sanwo-Olu, his successor,now with Niger state Governor, continued with it. There's always continuity of great initiatives in Lagos. We are known for that.
God bless Lagos state and may God bless Nigeria for ever!Check my signature for free stuffs!
Make sure you click on the links in the post below, so that you can see when the idea actually started.
Dear diary, I have told you about the mega city status of Lagos and how people like Bola Tinubu, Olusegun Obasanjo, Gbenga Daniel and Babatunde Fashola tried to create measures to tackle the challenges posed by having such a large number of people in such a small area.
Whenever we think of these measure, we often think of physical infrastructure that would counter the challenges in transportation (rail, ferry, buses, etc), healthcare (more hospitals and clinics), education (more schools and classrooms) and security (more policemen and more equipment), but we hardly think about the stomach.
Yes, the stomach! If you have so many people in such a small area, then all those stomachs must be fed. The increase in population will create the problem of too many people chasing too few food. This will lead to massive increases in the price of food. How do you solve this problem?
In the old days
I remember that, once upon a time, in the era of Governors Jakande, Aikhigbe and Rasaki, the government established farm settlements in rural parts of Lagos. These farm settlements were set up to resolve several problems at once. They provided employment, they were a source of revenue for the government, they provided training and skills acquisition and they were a source of food for Lagos (this was important especially after the food crisis of 1982 and 1983).
The government set up farm settlements in places like Ojo, Badagry, Lekki, Ibeju Lekki, Ikorodu and Epe and youths and other people were encouraged to go and work on the farms.
The modern era.
However, this idea will not solve the problem today. Lagos is one of the smallest states in Nigeria and its population has exploded beyond what the produce from the farm settlements can satisfy.
Besides, due to the population explosion, the city is rapidly expanding and those places that were rural areas in the 1980s are now part of the city. I remember when Lekki was just a large bush filled with lots of swamps and elephant grass, but now it is one of the fastest growing corridors in Africa. Ibeju Lekki will soon also join Lekki to become one of the fastest growing areas in Africa. The Ojo and Badagry areas will rapidly become urban when the Blue Line rail project and the various projects in Badagry (port, refinery, energy city) are completed. The City of Lagos has already spread to include Ikorodu. Therefore, there are not enough rural areas in which to establish farm settlements.
Governor Babatunde Fashola decided to solve this problem through a three-pronged approach.
3) He also decided that Lagos should not only be involved in producing raw food, rather it should be involved in processing food. This is the topic of this post - Lagos' efforts to process food.
Governor Fashola decided to establish a rice mill in Imota.
Imota is an area between Ikorodu and Epe, right on the border between Lagos and Ogun States. It is the site of one of the old farm settlements that I wrote about earlier.
Governor Fashola built a 20,000 metric tonnes rice mill at Imota, so that the rice that is grown in those farms that Lagos acquired outside the state can be processed at the mill and this will further provide employment for the people of Lagos. Rice is one of the most consumed foodstuff in Lagos.
However, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode came and pulled down what Fashola built because he wanted to build an even bigger rice mill on the site (probably the biggest in Africa). Governor Ambode wanted to increase the capacity of the mill from 2.5 to 16 metric tonnes per hour. This obviously delayed the project and it could not be completed before Ambode left office. (The agreement between Lagos and Kebbi State led to the production of Lake Rice. Lake = LAgos and Kebbi).
Governor Sanwo-Olu was determined to complete the project and it is currently being test-run. It is most likely going to be one of the projects that President Buhari will commission when he visits Lagos in January.
The Story
Now to the meat of the matter.
There is a former Nairalander who was one of my followers when he was a member of this site. I considered him to be one of the sensible Nairalanders. However, unfortunately, something happened to him ahead of the 2015 elections. It seems like he became deeply and emotionally involved in those elections. He started posting strange things and I was wondering, "Surely he must know that those things that he is posting are not true".
Anyway, he deactivated his Nairaland account after the elections.
Someone tweeted a video of the the trial run of the Imota Rice Mill and this guy replied with, "This is not the job of the government, and the reason will become clear soon enough. Check back in a year".
Unfortunately for him, there were two problems. (1) He didn't know enough about the project to enable him make an informed criticism and (2) the person that he responded to has a lot (a very large number) of militant followers.
You see, the government is not going to run the plant. Governor Fashola was known for despising new government parastatals and preferring to let the private sector run things (I will write more about this in my transport series), so you wouldn't expect him to create a government run mill.
The fact of the matter is that the Lagos State Government has signed an agreement with the West African Cotton Company (WACOT), which is one of the largest agro-processing companies in Nigeria, to ensure that WACOT runs the Imota Rice Mill. The former Nairalander did not know this.
He was roasted for several hours. It was almost a full day by the time I saw the tweet and they were still attacking him. He made another tweet in which he said that people were attacking him simply because he said that government shouldn't run a rice mill, but someone replied that it was the way he said it that made people attack him, while another person replied that he lied and that's why people are attacking him.
It seems like some of the people that are attacking him actually know him, because they claim that he never sees anything good in anything that government does.
He responded to a tweet that asked, "What do you fear most", with "Tinubu supporters".
I need to go and check if they've stopped attacking him.
Side story
This reminded me of another person. There is a former moderator on Nairaland who I have always assumed was a serious and sensible person. He sometimes asks me questions and I answer if I can. However, the guy has started doing something really strange and this has forced me to put him on my ignore list.
The guy began asking me questions, for example about the Imota Rice Mill, as if I am the one that is personally constructing the mill. I'm not sure if I've ever discussed the mill with him, but, the construction of the mill was delayed because Governor Ambode decided to expand it and this guy started questioning me as if I was responsible for the delay.
That's when I realised that he was not serious at all and decided to put him in my ignore list. All the information that I post is publicly available, so he should go and search for it if he really wants to know.
Lagos Agric Good Hub, Idi-Oro Mushin is offering a 25% discount on food items purchased between N1,000 - N25,000. This is an opportunity for families and individuals to access a variety of nutritious food options at more affordable prices, supporting the government’s efforts to ease the current economic situation.
This the future of the Agro Food Hubs being created by the State Government, It will be easier to sort price control and put a form of structured subsidy or palliative for the people.
...the surge in shoppers yesterday at the @Freshfoodhub was unprecedented. It revealed kinks in operations that need to be adjusted to volumes required to satisfy demand, but overall, we are happy that many shoppers (not all, might I add) left satisfied. We March on! @followlasg
The @Freshfoodhub Idi-Oro, Mushin is the first one we did and the impact and response has been massive. This shows clearly that our people are ready for this new way of life and Governor @jidesanwoolu has assured Lagosians that 4 others are under construction at the moment, hopefully to be completed by end of this year.
7 more locations have also been identified in other LGAs.
The Lagos State Government is signing agreements with lots of states to provide agricultural products for its food processing facilities.
Jubril Aremu Gawat @Mr_JAGs
We are expecting another MoU signing with Kwara State also soon, Both Commissioners of Agriculture in Kwara and Lagos have worked on all the modalities. Just left for both Governors have a look at it again and put pen on paper.
Politics › Re: Lagos And Niger States Sign MOU On Food Production (Photos) by naptu2(op): 9:52am On Mar 07, 2024
