Honestly, Governor Abiodun wears his gubernatorial strength and savvy like a badge of honour, on his chest; shining it with sweat, as true virtuous men do. He stands tall, wading through odds with the courage of a knight and confidence of a champion.
However, in continuation of his ‘Building Our Future Together’ Agenda for Ogun State, Governor Dapo Abiodun was recently in Cairo, Egypt; and Ethiopia, where he met with business leaders and investors to share and identify partnership opportunities that would facilitate and accelerate more multi-sectoral investments in the industrial development of Ogun State.
The SAPZs initiative is aimed at catalysing agricultural development on the continent through industrialisation. The program contends that once agriculture is placed on a sound footing, food insecurity will be a thing of the past as multiple jobs will be created for the teeming youths. The programme consists of four mutually reinforcing components – infrastructure development and agro-industrial hubs management; agriculture productivity and production; policy and institutional development; and programme coordination and management.
The AfDB and its partners are to mobilise $520million for the implementation of Phase 1 of the initiative in Nigeria with co-financing from other partners like the Islamic Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Already, the AfDB board has offered Nigeria a $210 million facility. This is expected to provide parallel co-financing while Nigeria’s federal and state governments would contribute both in cash and in kind. The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and seven other states – Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Imo, Cross River, Ogun, and Oyo – have been earmarked to participate in Phase 1 of the project.
Like Guinea, Senegal and Togo, the SAPZ is already in implementation in Ethiopia. Thus, the SAPZ tour had Governor Abiodun, alongside the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Mahmood Abubakar, meeting with Ethiopia’s Minister of Industry, H.E. Ato Melaku Alebal, in his Addis Ababa office to discuss and explore other areas of mutual collaboration. This visit is instructive for many reasons. Governor Abiodun holds fervently that agriculture is the greatest and fundamentally the most important of all industries and that agricultural growth is a proven driver of poverty reduction. Hence, he has continued to invest massively in it.
Indeed, the Abiodun administration has recorded many achievements in agriculture, noteworthy, the launch of the Anchor Borrowers Programme, ABP, in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
A poverty-eradicating initiative that provides inputs, service support, and training required for farmers through a single-digit loan and guaranteed off-taker, the ABP idea is in fulfilment of Abiodun’s promise to increase food production and create employment opportunities for Ogun people especially youth and women involved in agriculture and create another avenue to boost the nation’s self-sufficiency in food production.
There is the Ogun Broiler Project, which provides day-old chicks, feeds, inputs, and training to young farmers and buys the chickens after six weeks. Beneficiaries of the scheme make a profit of about N130, 000 in each six-week cycle. There are also the Joint Ogun State and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Value Chain Project, which is ongoing across many LGAS; and the FADAMA Graduate Unemployed Youths Scheme (GUYS), which credited, at the outset, 200 beneficiaries with a total grant of over N74Million with varying individual amounts depending on the chosen agricultural enterprise including cultivation of cassava, maize, rice, yam, and vegetables as well as the rearing of poultry, fisheries, piggery, snailry, large ruminants, and agro-processing, among others.
Noteworthy is that these investments in agriculture have not gone unnoticed by a discerning society and institutions. In recognition of Governor Abiodun’s agricultural policies and programmes, BusinessDay Nigerian Business Leadership Awards acknowledged Ogun as the Most Improved State on Agriculture and Economic Empowerment in 2020. At the Nigeria Agriculture Awards 2020, Prince Abiodun was awarded the Governor of the Year.
But, the trip was not just about agriculture. The governor’s first port of call was to Ahmed El Sewedy, the President and CEO of the Elsewedy Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Egypt but with significant investment opportunities across Africa. Listed on the Cairo stock exchange since 2006, the group operates in five key business sectors: Wire & Cable, Electrical Products, Engineering & Construction, Smart Infrastructure, and Infrastructure Investments; while at the heart of its approach is an all-in-one integrated Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) service which enables it to deliver even the most complex projects on time and within budget.
One of its subsidiaries, El Sewedy Electric, is a leading manufacturer of electrical products in Nigeria operating in Lagos.
The visit to El Sewedy, according to the governor’s media team, “was aimed at identifying partnership opportunities with a view to facilitating multi-sectoral investments to Ogun State.” The President of Afreximbank, Dr. Benedict Okey, was also in attendance. The governor stated public-private partnership is very fundamental to the diversification and economic growth of the state.
So, he said, “For us, partnering with institutions like yours is very important to us. But we understand that partnering with you will require that we give you the incentive to come and provide an enabling environment; one of which is security. Today, our state is one of the most peaceful in Nigeria because we took very deliberate steps at ensuring it is our number one priority.”
The El Sewedy boss appreciated the governor for his vision and visit and promised to send his team to the state to see and study the opportunities available and then, explore areas of collaboration.
While in Cairo, the governor and his team also met with Peter Emil, the Chief Business Development Officer – Áfríkà for Wadi Degla Holding, a Cairo-based multi-business conglomerate with vast interests and investments in real estate, telecoms, and sports services.
According to Governor Abiodun, “While the meeting lasted, we discussed some key investment opportunities available in the areas of creative arts, entertainment, and sports development.
“As the Wadi Degla Holding explores the African market – especially in Nigeria, it is our strong belief that the Gateway State would be given utmost consideration due to the existing ease of doing business and other socio-economic development considerations which place us at a vantage position in the country.”
