Governor Seyi Makinde’s Welcome Address During the Visit of President Julius Maada Bio
Being the Welcome Address by His Excellency Seyi Makinde FNSE, Executive Governor of Oyo State at the Presidential Visit Programme of His Excellency Dr Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone, Themed, “The Power of Improved Technologies and Public-Private Partnerships to Accelerate the Feed Salone Strategy” on Tuesday, 4 March 2024 at the IITA Headquarters, Ibadan, Nigeria
It is my immense pleasure to welcome you all to the Pacesetter State. I want to especially welcome His Excellency Dr Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone to Oyo State.
Let me start by sharing with you some interesting agricultural facts about our dear State that positions us to welcome great minds. I will also talk briefly about how we have been leveraging these unique advantages to develop our agricultural sector through public-private and development partnerships.
At the end of this welcome address, you will be even more convinced that you made the right choice in coming to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Oyo State for this conference to explore scalable solutions for agricultural transformation in Sierra Leone.
The comparative advantage that Oyo State has over other States in Nigeria is directly related to why the IITA is located here. A combination of strategic, climatic, historical, and logistical factors makes Oyo State an ideal location for agricultural research and innovation.
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Climatically, Oyo State falls into two major agro-ecological zones: The derived Savanah and the Guinea Savanah. Here in Ibadan, where the IITA is located, we have the Guinea Savanna zone. But Ibadan also serves as a transition belt between forest and savanna ecosystems. This makes it an excellent testing ground for research on both tropical and semi-arid crops, allowing scientists to develop solutions applicable to diverse agricultural environments across Africa.
Historically, there has been a synergy between the government and institutions. As you may already know, Oyo State is home to the first university in Nigeria, the University of Ibadan. UI has one of the oldest and most respected agricultural faculties in Africa. This strong academic and agricultural research heritage strengthens Ibadan’s position as a research hub.
Ibadan is also home to National Institute of Horticultural Research (NIHORT)Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN)Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T)
And now in 2025, Oyo State has become home to the first designated Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) Agricultural Transformation Centre (ATC) in Nigeria by the African Development Bank. The ATC is located at the former Fasola Farm Settlement which was reconstructed and upgraded by this administration. We look forward to welcoming His Excellency to the ATC tomorrow, where you will see for yourself what happens when strategy, the right climatic conditions, logistic advantages and history come together.
Before I speak more on other strategic decisions that makes Oyo State the ideal for agricultural transformation, let us take a look at the logistics of working in Oyo State.
Ibadan is strategically located close to Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub, and has road, rail, and air transport connections that facilitate the movement of research materials, agricultural products, and personnel. This ease of access makes collaboration with both local and international partners smoother. We have also worked in the last years to link all the zones of Oyo State. This intra-state networks facilitates ease of movement within the State.
For a fact, when we came into government in 2019, we knew that agriculture would be one of the pillars on which the economic transformation of Oyo State would be built. We started by creating a strategy document a roadmap for accelerated development in Oyo State for 2019 to 2023. We have since followed up with the Oyo State Roadmap for Sustainable Development in 2023-2027. In this document we outlined the steps we would take to modernise our agricultural sector, enhance food security, and stimulate economic growth.
And so, in April 2020, we signed into law the Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA) bill. This agency would serve as the special purpose vehicle for agribusiness partnerships between the State, the private sector and development organisations.
About a year later, we started developing the first agribusiness industrial hub which would serve as a pilot for other developments. I spoke about this earlier, it is now the first ATC in Nigeria and we have already kickstarted the next one in Eruwa. We also have another coming up in Ijaiye.
Another thing we have done is to leverage the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to expand our agricultural exports pool and seek further partnerships at both the national and subnational levels.
And because we know how important having the right skillsets is to agriculture, we launched training programmes for our youths, women and smallholder farmers. Helping them adopt modern agricultural practices and food systems. Even right from secondary school, we have the Start Them Early Programme (STEP), which is a collaboration with the IITA.
Of course, this is all integrated into strategic partnerships. Oyo State is always open to collaborations that willscale agricultural technologies, improve value chains, and promote climate-smart practices.
We don’t just talk the talk; we walk the talk.
So, Your Excellency welcome to the State where agriculture thrives. We believe you will enjoy your stay here as we live up to our name – the Pacesetter State.
Thank you and God bless you.
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