Oyo State Government is partnering Netherlands Government through agribusiness for economic development.
The Director-General, Oyo Agribusiness Development Agency, OYSADA, Dr Debo Akande made this known at the Oyo State-Dutch Collaboration for Economic Development meeting in Ibadan.
Dr Akande said the partnership between the Netherlands and the state government was to ensure that resources coming into the economic development of Nigeria receive priority.
“There is no government that can do it alone; we need partners and one of the critical areas of agribusiness is to ensure that we drive the private sector as much as we can at small, medium and large scale levels.
He added that Oyo state would soon commence fixing of 1500 feeder roads through the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project, RAAMP, a world bank project to enhance smooth transportation of farm produce.
“For this state, from 2019 till now, we have been able to drive N27 billion private sector investment in agribusiness and have over N40 billion worth of international development funds into agribusiness.
“It is this kind of partnership meeting that brings these things to fruition,” Akande said.
Also, the Consul-General of the Netherlands, Lagos, Mr Michel Deleen said the meeting was to bring to Oyo state solutions from the Netherlands to link up businesses in Oyo State and the Netherlands to build a better Nigeria.
“There are lots of Dutch companies in Oyo State; we are trying to consolidate on that to see how the Dutch Government and Oyo State Government can support and push further on economic development in Oyo State.”
Mr Deleen who said that collaboration on agriculture between Oyo state and Netherland had been yielding results
added that there was the need to do more in horticulture programme to increase tomatoes and cassava production in Oyo state and Nigeria at large.
He urged the state government to provide infrastructure such as good roads to complement and ensure that yields of agricultural produce increased through modern agricultural practices.
“It is a matter of training and capacity building.
“Use of the right seed, the right soil type and fertilisers are the technical things that would help Nigeria and in this case, farmers in Oyo State,” Deleen said.
In a remark, the Permanent Secretary, Oyo State Ministry of Trade, Investment and Cooperatives Dr Bunmi Babalola said that if well utilized would promote exportation, which had been the desire of market leaders in the state.
Commenting, Mr Kola Adeniji, a farmer and one of the participants, urged the three tiers of government to ensure that good policies were in place and implemented to make agribusiness viable in Nigeria.
Iyabo Adebisi
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