The chief executive of Tiyasilk Integrated Farms, Mr Hakeem Adeniji, has backed the construction of a central logistic hub by Origin Tech Group for the storage of dry and cold food.
In a chat with CNN, he posited that having a more reliable stockpile not only helps local consumers but also the farmers who supply the food as well.
Origin Tech is constructing a state-of-the-art facility on a land covering about 220 hectares in Lagos with a storage capability for five million metric tons.
According to the principal architect on the project, Sola Ige, “What we are looking at here is to store a significant amount of food that will last Lagosians for 90 days, should a crisis in the mode of COVID-19 ever occur again.”
Ige stated that the hub would serve as a storing, processing, and distribution centre for all of Nigeria with the intention of expanding to serve the broader region.
“The potentials are huge, half a billion tons of food in the space. It’s not a joke. We are not thinking local really, we are thinking at least for the African continent, we can repeat this in several countries, and it will be like Africa ceases to be the hunger capital of the world, and we can start exporting food also to the rest of world.”
For Mr Adeniji, “The advent of the central logistic hub, which I have regarded as a game changer, is good for people like us who are in the poultry business, who also see it as a prospect for a greater expansion of our businesses because now that we know that there is access to market, there’s a place we can always take our eggs.
“Now, you have adequate return on your investment and when you continue to do that, that means you have business stability.”
The chairman of Origin Tech, Prince S. J. Samuel, said having a more reliable stockpile not only helps local consumers but also the farmers who supply the food as well.
“Looking across Africa, I think it is time for change. When looking at the food system, you wonder why we still imports a lot of things. It’s because you don’t have the market-led system. I’ve not seen a lot of it developed.
“I believe that this project needs to run across Africa very fast and we are privileged to be that company who is willing to help pilot that drive because it has to be localised to each and adapted to the farmer’s culture,” he in the latest episode of Connecting Africa on CNN.
The hosts of the show, Eleni Giokos and Victoria Rubadiri, explored the continent’s expanding logistics sector to see how major investments in ports, railways, and airlines could unlock Africa’s trade potential.