Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has recently declared the readiness of his administration to upgrade the popular Akufo Farm Settlement into an agricultural estate.

The governor who stated this during an on-the-spot inspection tour of the Farm Settlement as well as the inspection of Kartlos Farms Limited, located inside the farm settlement, also said that his administration is working round the clock to make commercial agriculture the backbone of the state’s economy.

“Agriculture is where we think we have comparative advantage and we are looking at agro-processing to expand our economy. This place used to be a farm settlement but we are upgrading it to a farm estate,” he said.

He added ”People are already there, so we came to find out, first hand, what is really going on here and how things can be done meaningfully in a way that it can drive the economic expansion agenda of our government”.

A statement signed by Taiwo Adisa, the chief press secretary to the governor, quoted the governor as saying that his administration will incorporate other stakeholders to harness the benefits for the local market and export which will expand the economy of the state as it is in line with one of the four cardinal points of his government’s service agenda.

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He explained that a private farm has been using the facility in Akufo Farm Settlement to produce tomato and pepper through a greenhouse farming approach.

The governor, who expressed delight at how Oyo state has been designated as one of the beneficiaries of the African Development Bank (AfDB) agro-processing zone projects, said the development would be leveraged upon to fulfil local demand.