Lagos Assembly Holds Hearing On Management

The Federal Government has concluded arrangements to build a N10 billion fishing harbour terminal in Lagos State, South West Nigeria to boost the production of fishes in the state.

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Nojeem Awodele disclosed this in Lagos when he visited the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.

According to him, the proposed fishing harbour terminal will boost production of fishes in Lagos as well as in the country, adding that the federal government was very keen about the project.

“The Federal Government is very keen about agricultural development in Lagos State, especially within the sub-sector of the appellation, aquatic splendour.

“We are putting on board Lagos fisheries harbour terminal, a project that will gulp over N10 billion; we are on board with the project and we are waiting for the necessary land to be released to commence the project,” he said.

“Recently, the Federal Government awarded another contract, the farmer’s market which will cost about N3 million. It’s a combination of input and output where you can get anything you need. This is what is obtainable in all advanced countries.

“What we are doing is an integration of intellectualism because we want each area to be developed. Lagos is responsible for developing fisheries and if you don’t have them as ministry, you have them as department,” he added.

According to Awodele, the era of mono-cultural economy is gone. “First was the discovery of oil. We know the contributions being played by this particular resource. We found out that there is no other way out if we mean serious development for our nation than to work on our agricultural development.

“Having identified the importance of agriculture to national development, the next thing is to show how serious we are in that aspect. And we must give credit to Lagos for being proactive in the area of agriculture,” he stated.

Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Dr. Yakub Olajide disclosed that the ministry had over 1,000 viable agricultural cooperatives, saying that “our traditional cash crop is coconut.

“Agriculture is an important tool of the administration in Lagos State. Sixty percent of Lagos is rural and 95 percent of the population of the people in the rural areas practice agriculture.

“Thus, when you look at the number, you will see that in the 18 million population of Lagos State, we have over 10 million farmers who are directly or indirectly involved in agriculture,” he said.

Bashorun stated that the state government was ready to partner with the Federal Government in all areas of agricultural development in order to boost food production to feed the nation.