No fewer than 26 agripreneur startups shared NI00million as grants to boost their businesses in providing food security to the people of Lagos State and the entire nation as a whole while creating job opportunities for the unemployed youths.
Winners of a group of selected startups that participated in the grand finale of the competition for the grand prize were shared the NI00million largesse to help grow their agribusinesses as a unique opportunity to reshape the future of farming and food value chain.
Each of the winners went home with as much as N7million but no less than N1million to them scale up their agripreneure ventures.
Commissioner of Agriculture and Food Systems, Lagos State, Abisola Olusanya, noted that “the submit, Lagos Agrinnovation Submit, is essentially for young agripreneures and those into food related systems. What I meant by that is, we have those in e-commerce, those in logistics, we have those in food chain, those in food storage provisions, those into production of crops, those into livestock farming, we have those who are involved in the production of cotton that we use in the production of your tee-shirts, we have those who are into culinary stuffs – they cook food.”
According to her, the first edition of the Lagos Agrinnovation Submit is aimed to lay the foundation for intensive food security intervention, adding “Agriculture is more than the production alone, it’s more than just the farmers, it encapsulates a system of people, the market women and men, the logistics providers, the warehouse owners all in the agribusiness space. The submit is for young people who are into agriculture and encourage them to grow in the agribusiness space.”
Though the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Obafemi Hamzat briefly put in an appearance his remarks was given by the Chief of Staff to the Lagos State governor, Tayo Ayinde, harped on the consistent efforts of the state government to ensure that foods are not only made available for Lagosians but would continue to innovatively intervene that the foods are available at pocket friendly rates.
Tayo stated that the Eko Rice, Ounje Eko, Lagos Food hub in Mushin among other decisive interventions by the government is designed to ensure food security, while assuring participants that the government of Mr Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu determines to keep setting the pace in innovative food security intervention programmed in the country.
Dr. Olatunbosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, who joined the summit virtually, appreciated the Commissioner of. Agriculture and Foods System and the Lagos State government for championing the innovative programne in the the agricultural sector, adding that ” as a country we consume I.8 metric tonnes of sugar annually but we only produce 48, 000 metric tonnes, about 3 percent of what we need. Not only are we losing money to those countries that produce the the sugar that we import, we are also losing jobs. And for a country that has 5 million new people every year, we have to look for innovative ways to keep that in us, and that is not so simple task. So you can see why innovation in agriculture is extremely important.”
The keynote speaker, Prince Samuel Joseph Samuel, said the agribusiness space has no less than 90 percent small scale businesses but more than 90 percent distributors lose more than 40 percent of the revenue which goes to logistics.
Prince Samuel, while noting that Lagos food space is peculiar because due to unorganized market structure that often allows turn taking selling system leads to wastages of more perishable food items while the consumers pay for the losses, he noted that the government the must increase its innovative intervention programmes to ensure food security in the state.
The platform which was organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems, in conjunction with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), and the Eko Innovation Centre is designed to foster meaningful conversations, collaboration, and groundbreaking innovations within the agricultural sector.
With the theme, ‘Shaping Sustainable Agriculture and Food System for the Next Generation’, this gesture reiterates the government’s commitment to boost food security and production in the state, as well as serves as the backbone of the economy.
One of the finalists and beneficiaries of the grant, Jumamai Abalaka, founder and COO of PricePally who won Seven million naira expressed her gratitude to the Lagos state government stating that the grant will assist in taking her business to the next level.
Dada Oyindamola, a co-founder of Homal Foods said she is excited to have been considered one of the winners of the competition after such intense pitching sessions from several innovative businesses in the state. She said the money won will help them to rescale the business as they will be able to produce goods on a larger scale.
For Happy Coffee enterprise, located at VI in Lagos, Which won five million naira, Ifeoma Ara a representative said the grant will help the business get some of the processing machines that they use in processing their coffee products.
