The Managing Director of Friesland Campinas WAMCO Plc, Mr Ben Langnat, has given kudos to the Oyo State Government for developing the Fasola Agribusiness hub in Oyo State noting that the Governor Seyi Makinde-led administration is the first in three decades to build the hub.

Langnat made this known earlier today during an assessment trip to the acquired hectares of land allocated to the company by the Oyo State Government within the Fasola Industrial hub in Oyo town.

Speaking with journalists afterwards, Langnat noted that FrieslandCampina is happy to partner with the Oyo state Government on such a noble project and one that could turn the Fasola Agribusiness hub into the diary hub of Nigeria.

His words: “We are here because we are partners to the Oyo State Government in this project of developing this agribusiness hub that is very important to all of us. We are a dairy company with the purpose of ensuring that we produce quality dairy in this country for Nigerians to consume every day.

“Within this location, we have partnered with the State Government to develop a diary hub in this area. We have been allocated part of the land, 300 hectares which we are developing now. We have developed pasture, which is the process before we bring cows in. We have built cow sheds, boreholes and all other things needed to develop the pasture. As soon as that is done, we will have cows here that will produce milk that will be processed into the different products we produce. We are here to see the progress of what we’ve been doing so far.

“With 300 hectares of land, you can do a lot, producing thousands of litres of milk. There are, however, a lot of things to consider, including getting the infrastructure right, security, water, breeds of cows and many other things. However, we intend to scale this project.

“We’ve been collecting milk from more than 12,000 farmers. More than 1500 are women and a mixed of pastoral and settlement farmers in Oyo State. We have an existing architecture. This is a territory we are familiar with and a fairly good location to do business.

“There are less issues here at Fasola. Of course, more can be done in terms of security and infrastructure but we believe that this is one of the locations that has the potential to become the dairy hub in this country.

“We appreciate the Oyo State Government for coming up with such a noble idea. This land and this location has been here for over 30 years without being utilised, cultivated and different works being done. Today you’ll see that the Oyo State Government has parcelled out different areas of the land to different investors. We are just one of many. This is going to create a lot of employment for youths, revenue generation and development for the State.

In his remarks, the DG of OYSADA, Dr Debo Akande noted that Fasola Agribusiness hub is a pilot project which would be replicated across the State and one which is already generating revenue to the government coffers.

His words; “We are developing agribusiness industrial hubs across the state and this is a pilot of it. This is going to be private sector driven and so doing we are attracting investors that have the capability to drive the hubs.

Fasola hub has always been known for livestock farming and what we are doing with FrieslandCampina is to restore the glory of the hub. We will be seeing a modern approach to livestock farming and dairy production within this hub. That is quite significant. We have always been seeing from FrieslandCampina in terms of milk collection but we will be seeing a more modern twist to milk collection once the hub is fully operational.

“We will be working with our youths on milk collection. This is a full value chain of dairy that we are scaling in this location.

“We are already generating revenue from this. The land was not given to FrieslandCampina for free. FrieslandCampina is leasing the land and they’ve already paid and they’ll be paying for the next 20 years. And not only FrieslandCampina but other companies that are here are already paying. The government will be generating lease payment for the next 20 years from all these private companies.

“Also, these companies will be paying their taxes at one time or the other to the state.

“In addition, these companies will be employing quite a lot of people within the state that have the skillset to work within that particular industry.

“An added advantage to this is that we have something to showcase to other investors to see what we have on ground to encourage them to make other investments. This is a big win for Oyo State. This is marking a new beginning as far as agribusiness is concerned in the State.”

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