Newscoven
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Analysis
    • Feature
    • Interviews
    • Politics
    • Science
    • World
    Tinubu Receives Accolades For Posthumous National Award On Late Hajia Sawaba Gambo

    Tinubu Receives Accolades For Posthumous National Award On Late Hajia Sawaba Gambo

    Makinde Is A Promise-Keeper -Akintola, ex-APC Gov Aspirant

    Makinde Is A Promise-Keeper -Akintola, ex-APC Gov Aspirant (VIDEO)

    Aliiwo Day: Celebration Of Culture, Love, Unity

    Aliiwo Day: Celebration Of Culture, Love, Unity

    Alleged Plan To Turn Nigeria To One-Party State A Terrible Rumour -Tinubu

    Alleged Plan To Turn Nigeria To One-Party State A Terrible Rumour -Tinubu

    SAfER II: Dangote Commends Makinde As Oyo Distributes 10kg Rice To 30,000 Residents

    SAfER II: Dangote Lauds Makinde As Oyo Distributes 10kg Rice To 30,000 Residents

    Makinde Wiped Away Our Tears -Abatan, Secretary Oyo Pensioners Union

    VIDEO: Makinde Wiped Away Our Tears -Abatan, Secretary Oyo Pensioners Union

    Eid-el-Kabir: Makinde Advocates 6-Yr Single Term For President, Governors

    Eid-el-Kabir: Makinde Advocates 6-Yr Single Term Tenure For President, Governors

  • Entertainment
    Sanusi Becomes Sports Brand Ambassador In Malta

    Sanusi Becomes Sports Brand Ambassador In Malta

    Ilaji Holds Secondary School Basketball Competition

    Ilaji Holds Secondary School Basketball Competition

    My Life, My Trumpet -Ayomide Odunsi-IMO_TRUMP (SEE VIDEOS)

    INTERVIEW: My Life, My Trumpet -Ayomide Odunsi- IMO_TRUMP (SEE VIDEOS)

    Globacom Sponsors Premiere Of RMD’s Movie, Radio Voice 

    Globacom Sponsors Premiere Of RMD’s Movie, Radio Voice

    Christian Chukwu, Former National Football Team Captain, Dies @74

    Christian Chukwu, Former National Football Team Captain, Dies @74

    Eedris Abdulkareem Reacts As FG Bans His Song, Tell Your Papa (WATCH VIDEO)

    Eedris Abdulkareem Reacts As FG Bans Song, Tell Your Papa (WATCH VIDEO)

    Ghana Boxing Association (GBA) Confirms Deaths Of Nigerian Boxer, Olanrewaju

    Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) Confirms Death Of Olanrewaju, Nigerian Boxer

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • More
    • Advertisement
    • Disclaimer
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
Sunday, June 22, 2025
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Analysis
    • Feature
    • Interviews
    • Politics
    • Science
    • World
    Tinubu Receives Accolades For Posthumous National Award On Late Hajia Sawaba Gambo

    Tinubu Receives Accolades For Posthumous National Award On Late Hajia Sawaba Gambo

    Makinde Is A Promise-Keeper -Akintola, ex-APC Gov Aspirant

    Makinde Is A Promise-Keeper -Akintola, ex-APC Gov Aspirant (VIDEO)

    Aliiwo Day: Celebration Of Culture, Love, Unity

    Aliiwo Day: Celebration Of Culture, Love, Unity

    Alleged Plan To Turn Nigeria To One-Party State A Terrible Rumour -Tinubu

    Alleged Plan To Turn Nigeria To One-Party State A Terrible Rumour -Tinubu

    SAfER II: Dangote Commends Makinde As Oyo Distributes 10kg Rice To 30,000 Residents

    SAfER II: Dangote Lauds Makinde As Oyo Distributes 10kg Rice To 30,000 Residents

    Makinde Wiped Away Our Tears -Abatan, Secretary Oyo Pensioners Union

    VIDEO: Makinde Wiped Away Our Tears -Abatan, Secretary Oyo Pensioners Union

    Eid-el-Kabir: Makinde Advocates 6-Yr Single Term For President, Governors

    Eid-el-Kabir: Makinde Advocates 6-Yr Single Term Tenure For President, Governors

  • Entertainment
    Sanusi Becomes Sports Brand Ambassador In Malta

    Sanusi Becomes Sports Brand Ambassador In Malta

    Ilaji Holds Secondary School Basketball Competition

    Ilaji Holds Secondary School Basketball Competition

    My Life, My Trumpet -Ayomide Odunsi-IMO_TRUMP (SEE VIDEOS)

    INTERVIEW: My Life, My Trumpet -Ayomide Odunsi- IMO_TRUMP (SEE VIDEOS)

    Globacom Sponsors Premiere Of RMD’s Movie, Radio Voice 

    Globacom Sponsors Premiere Of RMD’s Movie, Radio Voice

    Christian Chukwu, Former National Football Team Captain, Dies @74

    Christian Chukwu, Former National Football Team Captain, Dies @74

    Eedris Abdulkareem Reacts As FG Bans His Song, Tell Your Papa (WATCH VIDEO)

    Eedris Abdulkareem Reacts As FG Bans Song, Tell Your Papa (WATCH VIDEO)

    Ghana Boxing Association (GBA) Confirms Deaths Of Nigerian Boxer, Olanrewaju

    Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) Confirms Death Of Olanrewaju, Nigerian Boxer

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • More
    • Advertisement
    • Disclaimer
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
No Result
View All Result
Newscoven
No Result
View All Result
Home Business Agriculture

As Makinde Leapfrogs Oyo’s Economic Growth With Agribusiness

Sulaimon Olanrewaju by Sulaimon Olanrewaju
December 4, 2024
in Agriculture
Reading Time: 6 mins read
4 0
A A
0
As Makinde Leapfrogs Oyo’s Economic Growth With Agribusiness

Makinde

6
SHARES
81
VIEWS
Share on WhatsappShare on FacebookShare on Twitter

“Though, oftentimes people resist changes, the leader is insistent because he knows that the desired destination would remain a delusion unless change is pursued to a logical conclusion. Makinde insisted on agribusiness because he had seen the embedded opportunities before they became obvious to others.”

Albert Einstein gave the world one of the most profound insights into solving problems. According to Einstein, who is regarded as the most influential scientist of the 20th Century, a problem cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness (thinking) that created it.

The import of this is that every situation or problem is the outcome of a thinking process; and without a deliberate effort to raise the thinking that gave rise to the problem, the problem will persist.
Einstein’s postulation is hinged on the fact that thinking is action’s precursor. As a matter of fact, thinking determines actions.

Unless the thinking changes, action does not change. If action does not change, outcome remains the same.

RelatedPosts

Oyo Attracts $170m Investment Through Agribusiness -Commissioner

Oyo To Spend ₦109Bn on Expansion Of Circular Road, Agric Projects

Food Security: Alli Distributes Seedlings To Farmers In Oyo South

To overcome a problem, a new thinking, which is not in consonance with the dominant thinking, is required. This is why great leaders daily engage in focused, creative and strategic thinking to overcome various societal challenges and improve the state of their people.

Thinking is the lot of leaders because problem solving is their calling. The quality of a leader’s thinking is directly proportional to the progress recorded in his time; it is also directly proportional to the quality of the people’s lives. If a society is making progress, it is because the leaders are thinking right and doing the right things.

Ditto, a retrogressive society is an indictment on the quality of thinking the leadership engages in. The prosperity of a society is a consequence of the robustness of the leaders’ thinking process; similarly the poverty of a people is a reflection of the malnourishment of their leaders’ thinking.

When Governor ‘Seyi Makinde assumed office in 2019, Oyo State was not numbered among Nigeria’s prosperous sub-nationals. It was categorised as an agrarian and civil service state. At that time, the state only managed to generate ₦1.8bn internally, and depended largely on revenue from FAAC for its sustenance. Consequently, unemployment rate in the state was high and so was poverty rate.

Makinde knew that for the narrative of the state to change, the thinking had to change. He knew that a type of thinking had limited the state’s IGR to ₦1.8bn monthly but a new thinking could take it much higher. He knew that a thinking had tethered the state’s productivity but another thinking could unleash it. He knew that the state had (and still has) comparative advantage in agriculture but its capacity had been limited by the dominant thinking of the time.

Makinde knew that the state’s comparative advantage in agriculture had to be turned into a competitive advantage and deployed to create wealth for the people. He knew that to make the most of the state’s comparative advantage in agriculture, he had to think about agriculture beyond sustenance.

So, to optimise the benefits inherent in agriculture, Makinde came up with a strategy that would make the Ministry of Agriculture focus on providing smallholder farmers with all the support they required to ensure food security and went ahead to establish the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA) as a vehicle for wealth creation.

OYSADA’s mandate is to create an enabling environment for agribusinesses to thrive by supporting infrastructure development and policy formulation.

Agribusiness is novel in Nigeria. Agribusiness is the system of migrating agriculture from being treated as a social service to being viewed as a business engagement that harnesses available potentials and opportunities for wealth creation.

The difference between agriculture and agribusiness is best explained by the difference between the average Nigerian farmer and the average American farmer. While the average Nigerian farmer is struggling and shriveling, the average American farmer is thriving and flourishing.

When agriculture is handled as a social service, poverty is multiplied, but when treated as a business, prosperity is created. The edge of agribusiness is that with it there is guaranteed uptake for smallholder farmers, guaranteed employment opportunities for the citizens, guaranteed revenue for the government, and guaranteed development for the state. So, with agribusiness, everyone gains.

When Makinde introduced agribusiness in Oyo State, it was the first time any Nigerian sub-national would travel that route. So, not unexpectedly, tongues wagged about the viability of the venture.

Some people said the state was better off treating agriculture as a social service rather than as a business. Some people were of the opinion that the state should have invested in growing crops instead of promoting agribusiness. But despite the criticisms, Makinde stuck to his gun by promoting agribusiness in the state.

Why?

A leader is one because he sees farther than others. A leader is a change agent because he sees opportunities before they become obvious; he is also able to identify threats ahead of others. So, great leaders always champion changes targeted at improving the lot of their people. Progress cannot be recorded without change being effected.

Though, oftentimes people resist changes, the leader is insistent because he knows that the desired destination would remain a delusion unless change is pursued to a logical conclusion. Makinde insisted on agribusiness because he had seen the embedded opportunities before they became obvious to others.

Makinde is of the view that the high rate of poverty in Africa is traceable to the inability of the continent to turn agriculture, which is the predominant engagement of the people, into a business. By failing to treat agriculture as a business, the continent overlooks the agricultural value chain.

Consequently, limited opportunities are created, limited jobs are generated and minimal wealth is produced. The end product is increasing poverty.

Corroborating Makinde’s view about agriculture and agribusiness, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of African Development Bank (AfDB), said: “Agriculture is not a way of life. It is not a social sector or a development activity, despite what people may claim. Agriculture is a business. And the more we treat it as a business, as a way to create wealth, the more it will promote development and improve people’s lives to boot.”

The former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture added: “One way to treat agriculture like a business is to get the private sector more involved in it. When I was Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture, the most important thing I had to understand was that government can’t create agricultural transformation; it can only enable it by making more room for businesses to intervene.

“We could do this by putting the right policies and regulations in place, by creating strong institutions, and by building sufficient infrastructure. But there is not much else government can do with a reasonable measure of efficiency. Agricultural transformation has to be led by the private sector.”

The major pull for private sector investment in any sector is the provision of required infrastructure. So, as a way of attracting private capital to the agribusiness sector in the state, Governor Makinde, right from the outset, saddled OYSADA with the responsibility of turning the various farm settlements in the state to industrial hubs. OYSADA was asked to turn these abandoned facilities into world-class business environments for the purpose of attracting investors from across the globe.

The first of the farm settlements to be turned into an industrial hub was Fasola. By providing the necessary infrastructure and emplacing policies that enhance business performance, the erstwhile moribund farm settlement has become a business cluster of sort with national and multinational companies occupying the 1,000-hectare facility.

By providing the necessary infrastructure at Fasola and improving the road network around that axis and other parts of the state, the Seyi Makinde-led administration has attracted development funds in excess of $120 million and about ₦150 billion worth of investments.

Similarly, many companies have sprung up within the Fasola Industrial Hub as well as the other parts of the state. These include Psaltery, the first company of its kind in Africa, which processes cassava products into sorbitol; Rontol Farms in Ilora, which also processes cassava and the Oyo Sugarcane Processors Ltd, the first brown sugar processing company in Nigeria, Brent Farms Ethanol Processing Company and Niji Agro-Solutions.

Within the Fasola Industrial Hub, there are eight national and multinational companies. Some of these are FrieslandCampina WAMCO, Milkin Barn Agro Services Ltd, E4 Farms, Brownhill Farms, Zigma Ltd and GOSEED Vegetative Ltd. Together, these companies have created thousands of employment opportunities, supported thousands of smallholder farmers and generated revenue for the state.

In just over five years, the agribusiness sector has attracted over a dozen major companies into the state. If any administration before 2019 was able to attract as many companies into the state, I would like to have the list.

With the Fasola Industrial Hub completed and fully occupied and the state government already leveraging the experience garnered from the project to turn the moribund 3,250-hectare Eruwa Farm Settlement into an agribusiness industrial hub, sustainable development in Oyo State is closer than ever.

•Dr Olanrewaju is the Chief Press Secretary to Oyo State Governor.

author avatar
Sulaimon Olanrewaju
Tags: AgribusinessSeyi Makinde
SendShare2Tweet2

Related Posts

Oyo Attracts $170m Investment Through Agribusiness -Commissioner

Oyo Attracts $170m Investment Through Agribusiness -Commissioner

by Sulaimon Olanrewaju
June 19, 2025
0
31

Oyo State Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Olasunkanmi Olaleye, on Thursday, disclosed that the state has attracted $170...

Oyo Speeds Up Circular Road •Approves Farm Centres

Oyo To Spend ₦109Bn on Expansion Of Circular Road, Agric Projects

by Sulaimon Olanrewaju
May 15, 2025
0
91

The Oyo State Government has disclosed that ₦109.23 billion would be spent on the expansion of scope of works on...

Food Security: Alli Distributes Seedlings To Farmers In Oyo South

Food Security: Alli Distributes Seedlings To Farmers In Oyo South

by Sulaimon Olanrewaju
May 9, 2025
0
26

As part of efforts to boost food security, Senator Sharafadeen Alli has distributed a variety of seedlings to farmers across four...

ICT | Science | Technology

NCC, Stakeholders Confront Rural Connectivity Challenges

NCC, Stakeholders Confront Rural Connectivity Challenges

June 12, 2025
13
Expert Calls For Recognition Of Achievements Of Women Engineers

Expert Seeks Recognition Of Achievements Of Women Engineers

June 1, 2025
139
FG, Globacom, Huawei Bridge Digital Divide With Pilot Project In Abuja Village

FG, Globacom, Huawei Bridge Digital Divide With Pilot Project In Abuja Village

May 31, 2025
57
NCC Orders Service Providers To Inform Consumers About Major Outages

NCC Orders Service Providers To Inform Consumers About Major Network Outages

May 26, 2025
99
Goloka Analytics Partners Meta On African Language Technology Project

Goloka Analytics Partners Meta On African Language Technology Project

April 23, 2025
52
Prev Next

Health

World Menstrual Hygiene Day: G2W²E Takes Campaign To Markets •Distributes Sanitary Pads

World Menstrual Hygiene Day: G2W²E Takes Campaign To Markets •Distributes Sanitary Pads

May 29, 2022
1.2k

“Nigeria’ll Become Medical Tourism Destination”

January 18, 2023
239

Let’s Save UCH From Power Crisis -Stakeholders

November 13, 2024
47

18 Realistic Ways To Become A Happier, More Chill Person In 2018

January 22, 2024
0

Edo Govt Dissolves Governing Council Of State-Owned Tertiary Institutions

November 20, 2024
25

We’ll Restore Oyo’s Status As Mecca Of Health Care Services-Makinde •Distributes 5m Insecticide-Treated Nets

August 16, 2021
522
Prev Next
Newscoven

NewsCoven.com is an independent and unbiased online news medium determined to take a holistic approach to reportage of events, covering all spheres of human activities, with refreshed zeal and vigour.

Contact: +234-805-732-0978

Categories

  • Achievers | Appointments
  • Agriculture
  • Analysis
  • Arts | Book Review
  • Banking & Finance
  • Business
  • Church
  • Crime | Court | Judiciary | Security
  • Culture | Religion
  • Editorial | Discourse | Opinion
  • Education
  • Energy | Oil & Gas
  • Entertainment | Sports
  • Environment | Community | Eye Report | Metro
  • Feature
  • Health
  • Hotels | Travels | Tourism
  • ICT | Science | Technology
  • Interviews
  • Islam
  • News
  • Peoples | Events
  • Politics
  • Reflections With Dapo Falade
  • Science
  • Uncategorized
  • Woman's Essence by Motunrayo Busari
  • World

Recent News

Again, Sanusi Embarks On Concrete Rehabilitation Of Ariyo-Akanran Road

Again, Sanusi Embarks On Concrete Rehabilitation Of Ariyo-Akanran Road

June 21, 2025
Tinubu Receives Accolades For Posthumous National Award On Late Hajia Sawaba Gambo

Tinubu Receives Accolades For Posthumous National Award On Late Hajia Sawaba Gambo

June 20, 2025
Makinde Clears Air On ₦63.4Bn Govt House Reconstruction Controversies

Makinde Clears Air On ₦63.4Bn Government House Reconstruction Controversy

June 20, 2025

© 2024 NewsCoven - Beyond the Surface by DF Global Resources Enterprises.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

No Result
View All Result
  • About Us
  • Advertisement
  • Breaking News | Latest Nigerian News Today
  • Checkout
  • Contact Us
  • Disclaimer
  • Home
  • Login/Register
  • My account
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

© 2024 NewsCoven - Beyond the Surface by DF Global Resources Enterprises.