Kogi State Governor Idris Wada has vowed to make agricultural transformation the fulcrum of his administration. As a special guest at the World Economic Summit, held in South Africa recently, he spoke on Kogi's potential, as well as the state's plans for the long abandoned Ajaokuta Steel Company. In this interview with Atabor Julius, he also speaks on other important issues.
You were recently in South Africa for the World Economic Forum. Tell us your experience there.
My trip to South Africa was at the instance of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, because there was an appendix in the forum for agriculture, which was held in Cape Town, South Africa, last week.
There was a section in the forum, which focused on Nigeria's agricultural transformation agenda, and because Kogi State has fully keyed into the agricultural transformation agenda of the Federal Government, focusing on accelerated agricultural development and stable crops processing development at Abado in the western part of the state, I was invited to share my experiences in some grey areas with investors, and with development partners on the effort that our state is making in translating agricultural transformation into reality to address the challenges we are facing, and also find out the opportunities that abound in Kogi State for investors to tap into.
I also touched on the political will on the part of our government, which is the catalyst to investors' confidence in agricultural transformation. I had the opportunity to present a paper on this subject, which was well received.
So, what gains of the conference accrued to Kogi State?
We are already enjoying the dividend of the conference. We had an encounter with Cadel, one of the highly reputable manufacturing company based in United States of America. They have agreed to partner with Kogi State in the area of cassava growing and processing at Abado. The company will grow special variety of cassava, and establish starch processing factory to produce sweetener and sucrose for various food manufacturing industries.
There is a lot of benefit in agriculture programme, because it will create jobs for our teeming unemployed youths in the state. This programme will involve small-scale farmers fusing into commercial farming.
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