Governor Mohammed Bago of Niger State says his administration is targeting N1tn in revenue through the Niger Food Security and Logistics Company in the next five years.
The Special Adviser on Digital Media and Strategy to the governor, Mr Abdullberqy Ebbo, in a statement in Abuja on Saturday said the move would employ over 100,000 farmers who would be farming on over 100,000 hectares across the state.
He said an agreement was signed between the Chairman of Niger Foods, Mr Sammy Adigun, and the Executive Director of Tropical General Investments Group, Sadik Kassim, a commodity off-taker firm.
The statement noted that the signing of the agreement was witnessed by the Chairman of Union Bank and the Executive Vice Chairman, TGI Group, Malam Faruk Gumel.
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According to the agreement, the state government and the producer would be responsible for the cultivation, harvesting, aggregation, and sale of rice paddy, soya beans, maize and sesame seeds to the off-taker.
This, he said, includes TGI, which would be responsible for the transportation, logistics, and purchase of the farm produce.
The statement said TGI was part of the conglomerate, which included Union Bank, Wacot Rice, Wasil, and Chi Group.
He said the transaction involved the production of 600,000 to one million tonnes of various farm produce per year, concurrently for five years.
The governor had said during his presentation of the 2024 appropriation bill to the state House of Assembly that his government would focus on agriculture. To further demonstrate his commitment to agricultural development in the state, he said he should henceforth be called Farmer Governor, rather than His Excellency.
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