Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, on Thursday called for the exploration of available partnership options between Germany and the state in the area of food production as a way of contributing to the food security agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
Abiodun stated this when he received the Consul General, German Embassy, Weert Borner in his Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta office.
Abiodun noted that his administration was on the lookout for partners in the area of mechanised farming, adding that the state government would be supporting small farmers across eight extension services.
The governor also said that tractors and other forms of mechanised farming equipment that will help his administration in achieving its plan will also be provided for farmers in the state.
He said: “I will like to explore with you and have partnership that we can find with the German government in supporting us in our new resolve to up the ante in food production.
“Our new policy now is to partner anyone who wants to come and farm in Ogun State by providing the land, by ensuring that the lands are accessible, by also clearing the land.
“To that extent, we are looking for partners in the area of mechanised farming and providing tractors and other forms of mechanised farming techniques that will help us in achieving our plan.
“In the last few days, we’ve been deliberating on how to ensure that we contribute our quota to the food security agenda of President Tinubu.
“We believe that we can easily be the bread basket of this nation and we are devising new strategies to achieve the objective in the shortest time.
“We have an ambitious plan of ensuring that in the next 12 months, this becomes easily visible across the state. We welcome partners that will assist us in that part.”
Abiodun, while commending the German government over the capacity building programme of GIZ in the state, confirmed the position of the state as the number one in non-oil revenue in the country as a result of the abundance of mineral resources, particularly limestone.
He also noted that his administration has removed all forms of bottlenecks that had hitherto impeded the ability of investors to set up in the state.
“In the areas of what you’ve done with us in the past in terms of capacity building or the education sector, ease of doing business, what we have done as a state is to ensure that we create access for ourselves.
“We increase our efficiency to remove unnecessary bottlenecks that hitherto had impeded the ability of people to come and set up here.
“We set up the public /private office. We set up the Ogun State Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency. We also set up a one-stop shop that we call the Ogun State Business Environment Council so that all those who need to work together to make this kind of thing happen are well notified and are easily reachable so that we can remove whatever is a stumbling block,” he added.
Earlier in his remarks, the Consul General noted that the German government is looking at increasing its ties with the state in the agricultural sector and energy transition.
“The two major areas we want to focus in increasing cooperation between Ogun State and Germany is the agricultural sector; meaning better production, better methods of agriculture, plus making agriculture more sustainable and environment friendly and of course supporting Ogun state in food security for all of Nigeria.
“The second area is the energy transition to improve the build up of renewable energy and the grid development in Nigeria,” he said.
James Sowole
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