The South-West Development Commission (SWDC) has given its newly-inaugurated Action Committee on TransComs a 180-day mandate to ensure the delivery of the rural transformation programme from concept to execution of pilot projects and laying the groundwork for regional scale-up within the region.
The committee will be co-led by the MD/CEO, Dr. Charles ‘Diji Akinola and Professor Oyebanji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, Programme Director of the Foundation for Technology Innovation and Sustainable Development (FTID), the technical partner of SWDC on the initiative.
The Action Committee was inaugurated at the close of the TransComs co-creation roundtable, held at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan.
SWDC MD/CEO, Dr. Akinola, said the committee would serve as the Commission’s delivery engine, ensuring the project moves rapidly from stakeholder engagement to measurable impact on the ground.
The Action Committee, he stated, was structured around four pillars designed to anchor credibility and de-risk execution.
Leading development finance institutions, including the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Bank of Industry (BoI), joined the South-West Agribusiness Company (SWAgCo) to anchor the finance and investment stream.
Policy and coordination were represented by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, the South-West Governors’ Forum, and the commissioners for agriculture and budget from Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states.
Private sector and technical expertise came from agribusiness leaders at Psaltery International and Niji Farms, alongside logistics and energy specialists and senior officials from the Nigeria Railway Corporation.
Development partners, including the Sasakawa Africa Association and UNICEF completed the coalition, providing technical and community engagement support.
The immediate mandate of the Action Committee on TransComs was to coordinate partnerships across federal, state and private sector actors, mobilise technical and financial resources, and deliver pilots in Fapote, Ogbomoso, and Ara, Osun.
Working with state and local governments in the South-West, it will also develop the governance and sustainability frameworks needed to replicate the model across all 137 local government areas in the region.
“TransComs is not another report on the shelf,” Dr. Akinola said. “This committee is our delivery engine.”
TransComs, short for Transformed Communities, is SWDC’s cluster-based model for converting groups of rural communities into integrated economic hubs.
By linking agriculture with housing, logistics, enterprise development and youth employment, the programme aims to lift households from $2 to $10 a day within five years.
Professor Oyelaran-Oyeyinka described a TransCom as a living community centre where people work, trade, learn and build livelihoods, positioning agriculture as the anchor for broader prosperity rather than a stand-alone activity.
