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Lagos Commissioner, Bisola Olusanya, Unveils State Plans To Harness Agricultural Potential
- We will set up a One-Stop shop for any would-be investor to come in and be able to partner with the Lagos state government – commissioner for agriculture
As part of its efforts to resuscitate the moribond agriculture sector in the state and boost the state’s revenue, the Lagos state government has unveiled an all encompassing plan to revive fishery and livestock farming in the state.
Commissioner for Agriculture in the state, Bisola Olusanya, said Lagos is blessed with many natural endowment needed to have a thriving and robust agricultural sector.
Speaking when she appeared on Channels TV programme, on Monday, Olusanya said Lagos can address the issue of unemployment by leveraging on plethora of opportunities available in the livestock and fishery value chain, noting that these are areas of comparative advantage for the state.
“For instance. We demand over four hundred thousand metric tons of fish on an annual basis, but our fishermen on our agriculture farmers are able to produce just about 174 thousand metric tons. It means I have a deficit of over 200,000 tons. I need to bring in investors into the space. We need to go big in fish trolling”
She bemoaned the outsourcing of crucial fishing activities to foreigners, saying the state is being short-changed by such economic realities.
“We need to start capturing fish. I mean you have even Japanese coming into our Coastal Waters to do shrimping and what have you. They take these things back to their country exported back to us. It’s ridiculous. We have this abundant body of water around us, What are we doing with it? So these are areas where Lagos would like to concentrate on areas where we have the competitive and comparative advantage
“Like I said in Fisheries, red meat, yes we do not produce, but we would like to expand on what we can do within the red meat sector Lagos consumes. about 1.8 million herds of cattle on an annual basis?
” We consume six thousand herds of cattle on a daily basis when considered a transactional value for cattle alone for Lagos alone, it is about three hundred and twenty eight billion naira, but we are producing nothing.
” What Stops us from setting up ranches in this state?We have the largest market. It also makes sense that we set up ranchessuch that we are closer to Market. We remove the logistics costs that you know, we’re actually working on that. There will be an expression of Interest will be out next week.”
She said she was not oblivious to the poor rating of Lagos on ease of doing business index, adding that some of the factors that contributed to it were beyond the control of the state.
“So what the Lagos state government is doing currently is to set up a One-Stop shop for any would-be investor to come in and be able to partner with the Lagos state government such that in terms of setting up businesses. It’s much easier. Yes, you know the ease of doing business index for Lagos has has not been quite good but I’m not that is also because of bureaucracies that sometimes are outside of our control which is why under the administration of Babajide Sanwo Olu We’re trying to ensure that we are able to draw in investors in such a way and manner that you find it easy to do business in Lagos.
Lagos Emblem
“So it’s an inter-ministerial effect. Once again where every MDA is also collaborating in areas where we know that he has for instance if we want to set up an agro processing center for instance. It means you possibly require an agric land, It means you possibly require some permits from the ministry of physical planning and Urban Development. It means you possibly need to do EIA and contact the ministry of environment. It means you have to you know, touch a lot of Ministries and agencies to be able to get Everything together to be able to say yes, I like to do this business. So when we are trying to do is to say, you know what we are going to set up a One Stop Shop Center as opposed to having to go to each and every Ministry trying to pay a fee here, pay a fee there and everything is disjointed and teach you so much time. We started our One-Stop shop for everything you need around setting up an agro processing facility we make it available for you. So if it’s a Ministry, let’s say for instance agric, that has to take the lead in that area because this is not an agro processing facility then we would do everything that it takes to ensure that that person who is a major stakeholder for us is able to get this business to fly.
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“Yes. It’s not an easy walk in the park and I’m not saying that maybe in the next one month to two month it’s is going to be rosy. you definitely find a few bottlenecks hair on their body processes like this take a bit of time before you find perfection in that but we are working on ardently towards it just to ensure that Lagos again become the destination hub of investment destination for Nigeria”
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