Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. I recalled Governor Makinde’s address in April 2021 at Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN’s) 50th Annual Accountants Conference in Abuja, with the theme: ‘Achieving Sustainable Leadership Through E-government in the 4th Industrial Revolution where he said “that for the country to experience sustainable development and not to be left behind in the fourth industrial revolution, it needs focused leadership, which will be able to harness its potential to “pick up and catch up with the rest of the world.”
Leadership in Governor Seyi Makinde distilled down to 3 words: Make a difference. In Oyo State, a distinctive difference is being observed. His focus on Agribusiness where he set to transform existing under-utilised and moribund farm settlements in Oyo State to agribusiness industrial parks.
Makinde’s focus on Agribusiness where he observed that the state has comparative advantage and with agro-processing, Oyo economy will progressively expand. He proposed nine agribusiness industrial parks with the aim of making the state’s agricultural sector globally competitive. Fashola Agro-Industrial Hub as the first of nine integrated agro-industrial parks that will be built across the state by the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA).
Fasola Agro-Industrial Hub which will include dedicated crop and livestock production facilities, research and innovation centres, processing facilities, agricultural equipment leasing facilities, cold-chain, storage, packaging, distribution and export facilities and a sprawling residential area. The Agro-Industrial Hub is on 1,200-hectares of land.
The Agro-industrial hub will play vital role in Oyo State.
- It will foster a rapid industrialisation path through encouraging manufacturing and agro-processing industries
- It will also help in advancing the state’s economy
- It will reduce rural poverty
- It will create a better environment for investors in agro-food and allied sectors.
Makinde has also make provision of adequate agricultural extension services by making the living conditions in the agricultural production sites conducive through the provision of rural infrastructure such as electricity, health facilities, and good roads, among others.
The effect of Agribusiness Development Agency bill signed into law in April 2020 by Governor Seyi Makinde has made the agency based in Saki to develop a strategy to coordinate and implement agribusiness investments and projects in the state through public, private and development partnerships.
There are many achievements recorded by this administration in agricultural sector and this has really improved the economy of the state. The state government under the leadership of Governor Makinde has also created a database of 10,000 smallholder farmers under the Oyo State Agricultural Micro-Enterprise Scheme, the bio-metric data of all the farmers and GPS of their farms will be captured for authentications of the farmers and this will improve the sector performance.
Governor Makinde has a vision to rebuild the economy of the state and is extracting value from all moribund facilities in the state.
Industreet Bashorun writes from Àgbókojó
