Lagos State has rolled out sweeping market and infrastructure changes designed to strengthen its massive food economy, valued at N16.14 trillion annually.
Abisola Olusanya, the state's Agriculture Commissioner, unveiled the plan on Friday during celebrations marking Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu's seventh year in office.
According to her, the government is moving beyond scattered farm interventions. It's now building a complete food systems economy anchored on infrastructure, logistics, technology and business investment.
Lagos remains Nigeria's biggest food market by far. The sector creates vast prospects for investors, traders, farmers and agribusinesses across the value chain.
But strategy won't stop at production alone, she noted. Storage, transportation, processing, distribution and market access are equally critical to positioning the state as Africa's food systems leader.
At the heart of this transformation sits the Lagos Central Food Systems and Logistics Hub in Epe. When finished, it'll be Sub-Saharan Africa's largest food logistics facility.
Olusanya said the hub can process over 1,500 trucks daily. It'll manage storage, processing, aggregation and distribution of more than 1.5 million metric tonnes of food yearly.
First-phase completion is scheduled for this year, she announced. The development marks a turning point in Lagos's food transformation journey.
Inside the facility sit cold storage units, dry storage systems and processing centres. Quality control labs, warehousing, digital trading platforms and truck parks round out the design.
The setup aims to slash post-harvest losses significantly. It'll also help stabilise food prices across markets.
Lagos has also created the Produce for Lagos initiative alongside a N500 billion Offtake Guarantee Fund. Both programmes support farmers, aggregators, logistics firms and investors directly.
In her words, the fund is designed to eliminate market uncertainty. It encourages investment in agriculture's entire value chain.
"The Offtake Guarantee Fund removes risk from farm investment," she explained to reporters. "It builds trust among farmers, processors, operators and financiers."
Existing agricultural projects are expanding too. Imota Rice Mill, the Aquaculture Centre of Excellence and middle-level agro-produce hubs are all moving forward.
Imota Rice Mill operates as Africa's largest facility and third globally. It produced over 500,000 bags of Eko Rice within the review period.
The state has cultivated hundreds of hectares of rice fields nationwide. These support paddy production feeding the mill's continuous operations.
Employment generation remains part of the strategy as well. Thousands of youths, farmers and agribusiness operators have received training through state programmes.
Three major initiatives drive this effort: the Lagos Agripreneurship Programme, the Agric Scholars Programme and the Agrinnovation Club.
Over 66,000 beneficiaries accessed support through various agricultural schemes between May 2025 and now. Numbers continue climbing monthly.
