FIC Report (Nasarawa State) – Nasarawa State Governor Engnr Abdullahi Sule has performed the groundbreaking for the construction of a N30 billion Cassava Industrial City in Agwada, Kokona Local Government Area of the state.
The project according to the governor, is already implementing the resolutions of last week’s National Economic Council conference on economic development to life.
The groundbreaking of the project, took place barely 24 hours after the close of the two-day NEC meeting on the Renewed Hope Ward Development Planning, positions Nasarawa State as one of the first states to translate the Council’s call for grassroots value addition into visible action.
Governor Sule while addressing the public at the event, including the traditional rulers of the area, landowners, and financial partners, said that the project is inline with the national push for domestic processing of raw materials.
“The whole idea from the NEC conference is about developing the ward. Today, we are not just talking about a ward. We are talking about a village. By the time we have this project—the biggest cassava industrial city in Nigeria—then we have developed this ward in the area of cassava,” he stated.
The cassava industrial city, is a project owned by Sequoia Farm Limited, designed as a complete value chain operation spanning cultivation, processing, and the production of ethanol, starch, high-quality cassava flour, animal feed, and bio-energy, with phase one of the project set to cultivate 500 hectares under an outgrower model that reserves 80 percent of participation for women from the host community.
He informed the management of the company that their greatest security lies in the goodwill of the people.
“Once the community buys into this project, you are one hundred percent secured,” he said.
He pledged to monitor the relationship between the investors and the community to ensure fairness on both sides.
The Governor disclosed that even as the cassava groundbreaking held, another team of investors from India is currently on tour in the state in search of 10,000 hectares of arable land for a complete cashew nut value chain.
He described this as the practical application of the NEC resolution that Nigeria must stop exporting raw materials without processing.
The ceremony marked the formal commencement of a five-year investment cycle projected to run from 2025 to 2030, with the first phase expected to empower 500 outgrower farmers, 80 percent of women, and introduce advanced agricultural processing technology to a community that until now had largely relied on raw commodity trading.
“I may not be the governor by then. But I will be the happiest person if I am still alive to come back here and witness that development,” he said.
Earlier in his address, the MD/CEO of the Nasarawa State Investment Development Agency (NASIDA) Dr Ibrahim Abdullahi said the project was a direct outcome of the Governor’s economic strategy.
“Development does not happen by accident. His Excellency has matched words with action. Before his coming, raw materials from Nasarawa left without value addition. Today, we are changing that,” he said.
Also speaking the Chief Executive of Sequoia Farm Limited, Cheta Udezue recalled that when his team first visited the site three years ago, the access road was impassable.
He commended Governor Sule’s investment in infrastructure drive and his belief in the corridor for making the project possible.
“Every development project, the government is the biggest shareholder—sometimes through infrastructure, sometimes through policy. His Excellency provided both,” Udezue said.
Dr Mustapha Bakano, President of the National Cassava Growers Association, described the Kokona project as the first 10,000-hectare cassava industrial city in the country.
He commended Governor Sule’s resilience, saying, “it takes resilience to achieve anything in this country.”
The paramount traditional ruler in Kokona Local Government Area, the Abaga Tony, HRH Mr. Lawrence Ayih JP, thanked the Governor for his personal intervention in resolving delays that had stalled the groundbreaking.
“You have not only brought investors; you have restored peace in this area,” he said.
Signed
Solomon Mundung
EO Info & PRO.
EDITED BY
ARI, LIMAN AMINU.
Héad of Centre,
FIC, LAFIA
