FRID AY. APR IL 8. 20 11
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oJurong Industrial Estate, Singapore
New industrial estates: Lagos budgets
N500Dl, woos investors Honke Badmus . HE Lagos State Government is looking for investors to . develop fOLir new indusllial estates locate9 in IbejLl Lekki . Ija~ikin. Ikorodu and Epe areas a nd has already sel aside N500m for the projecls. Similarly. the government has spent N40m to re novate
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four existin g small-scale industrial estates located in Isolo.
Yaba , Sabo and Mato";. Work has reac hed an advance slage in the estates and will co ntinue as m ore funds are approved by the government. .. ' The Comm issioner' ft> r Commerce and Industry, Prince Adeniyi Oyemade. disclosed these in an interview with our
correspondent in Lagos on Thursday. He said. "The N500rn approved for building of the new industrial estates cannot be enough to build o ne of them ..
proper shape. "We currently have three proposals from three interested local investors, who we are still talking to for a concrete agreem ent: once the arrangement is finalised. theV \,1,.' i11 slart."
Oyemade expla ined that the Imota eslate would receive priority attention as soon as Governor Babatunde Fashola
gave approval. He said that the government had approved 23 hectares of land for building the estate , and that it would be mainly for agricultural produce. He added that it would ha ve rice mi lls, agric packaging and milling firms, among olhers. According to him. proposals have been fo rwarded to the government on outsourcing the four existing estates to priva te
in vestors to manage and maintain. so that they wi ll not have
to wait for the governmenl alilhe time . H e noted that some of these estates were industrial
However. the min istry is ioo\{ing for four private organisations to invest in infrastructure and other areas, to see how we can
incubators for small-scale business sta rters to use for the first
five years in order to help them save money for deepening
finish construclion of these industrial estates and put them in
their businesses.
Nigeria, World Bank, UTA collaborate to stop afIatoxins Ronke Badmus . IGERJA. in collaboration with the World Bank, has joined the International InstituteoffropicalAgriculture
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to tackle food contamination from aflatoxins.
Aflatoxins are any of a class of toxic compounds that are produced by certain moulds found in food, and
thatthedecision to collaborate Ii> tackle the menace was part of the activities of the Commercial Agriculture Development Programme, which was supporled by the World Bank and inaugurated in some slates, including, Kano. Kaduna, Enugu, Cross River and Lagos.
contaminated maize being consumed by the people, which resulted in several deaths. Poultry and fish are particularly vulnerable to aflatoxin., which influence their productivity, the slatement added. It also noted that in Nigeria,
control product called aflasafeTM that will stop the a flatoxin menace," Ihe statemenl said. An IITA Pathologist, Mr. Ranajit Bandyopad hyay. said. "This is good news to farmers because they h I r t th nOI.~1 ave a so ulan 0 e
Co~~~:;;~~r~ ~~~ N~~on: ~e:~~~~:~~~;e~t~~~ef::~mt~~ pr~'lfem
can cause liver damage and
M. Babandi, the decision is a
premium food market due to
farmers apply a fiasafeTM, they can sell
major step by the government
aflatoxin contam ination.
the ir
cancer.
towards ensuring food safety and securily in the counlry. The statemenl noled that in Kenya, aflato~ins had
"The collaboration among Nigeria, IITA, and the World Bank will roll out and make available to farmers a bio-
prices, and above all , it will guaran tee the safety of home-grown food and health of consumers."
A
statement made ..<. ~,__available by the institute in Lagos on Wed nesday, said
maize
at
premium
''The estates were last renovated 15 years ago. we need
to work on the walls. drainage. roofs, as well as other infrastructu re," the comm issioner explained. He said the idea of industrial estates was to boost econom ic development through entrepreneurial endeavours and to boost industrialisation in the state in particular. and the
countryallarge. He noted that there were three levels o f incubators. "Th e first level requires that occupants spend a maximum of five >'ears and th en move to a bigger' estate: at th e second level of five to 15 years. occupants are entitled to their own
land ; and at Ihe Ihird level, they are expected to be in their property," he said. The commissioner added that the Lagos Stale Government was doing a great job to help industrialists, especially up-starts. According to the Chairman. Nestle Pic, Chief Olusegun Osunkeye, it is good to build new industrial estales, but for them to be of benefil 10 manufacturers. business owners and the economy al large; there must be adequate infrastructure . H e said. "Infrastructure, including good roads. clean environment, dra inage. wa ter system and security. among others. will reduce th e cost o f production for the beneficiaries
and help them to make more profits ." Osunkeye added that for industrial eslales to achieve Iheir main objective, th ey mu st be accessible to customers. He said that private organisations were also free to
contribute to building induslrial estates or clusters. whether by invitation individually or as joint ve ntures.
The Deputy Presiden!. Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Induslry. Mr. Goodie Ibru. also said thal lhe grealest challenge facing the Nigerian industrial sector today was the increaSing rate o f importation .
He said, " /I is unfortunate that all the products we are supposed to be producing locally are be ing imported . Another major problem of manufacturers is the lack of infrastructure .
"Building more industrial clusters is a welcome idea because they will go a long way in eliminating Ihese challenges and will aid economic deve lopm ent.路'