The administration of Governor Umar Bago of Niger State is planning big on agriculture. The man has taken several steps towards using the potential of the state hosting the largest land area in Nigeria to advantage for people of the state. His latest action is the enablement of an agriculture venture that holds the promise of fetching the state a princely sum of N 1 trillion naira in one year. This follows an agreement for commodities off-taker between the state owned Niger Food Security and Logistics Company and Tropical General Investments (TGI), a privately-owned company.
Apart from boosting food production in the state, the venture is also expected to generate annually a huge revenue of one trillion naira. That is expected to give a leap to the economy of the state. It is also a development in the pattern that Governor Bago has followed since assuming office, either in collaboration with brother governors and the federal government or individually as a government.
The governor at a ceremony recently in Minna, the state capital, supervised the signing of the agreement between the Chairman, Niger Foods, Sammy Adigun, and Executive Director, TGI Group, Sadik Kassim. With him at the event were the Chairman, Union Bank and Executive Vice Chairman, TGI Group, Mal Faruk Gumel.
A statement by the Special Adviser on Digital Media and Strategy to the Governor, Usman Ebbo said the state government will shoulder the responsibility of producing the agricultural products. It says that Niger State “shall be responsible for the cultivation, harvesting, aggregation, and sales of rice paddy, soya beans, (and) maize”. On the other hand, Tropical General Investments, which is the off-taker “shall be responsible for the transportation, logistics, and purchase of farm produce.”
The statement explains further that the framework agreement “involves the production of 600,000 – 1 million tons of food per year over the next five years.” At the end of each year, the state government is expected to rake in over N1 trillion in revenue. That is huge. But it is not the only reason the governor is excited. He said at the ceremony that the production will employ over 100,000 farmers, who will be engaged on over 100,000 hectares across the state. For a governor that has a good appetite for development of the state and its people that is something to cheer about.
