Edo State has emerged Nigeria’s number one oil palm-producing state, contributing about 12 per cent to the aggregate palm oil production in Nigeria.
This came on the heels of Governor Godwin Obaseki’s reforms in the state’s agricultural sector to boost oil palm production and economic growth.
Edo is followed by Akwa-Ibom and Cross River states, which contribute between five to eight per cent.
The governor, through the Edo State Oil Palm Programme (ESOPP) aimed at de-risking the oil palm value chain by providing contiguous land to investors for sustainable production, has allocated over 70,000 hectares of land for oil palm development, attracting over $500 million in investment, the largest of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa.
Apart from Okomu and Presco, the two largest agric companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the state today plays host to over 10 companies that have been allocated land, including Dufil Prima Foods, the makers of Indomie Noodles; Saro Oil Palm; Flour Mills Nigeria Plc; an American Company called Fayus and Saturn Farms, among others.
The Chief Executive Officer of Foremost Development Services Limited, an intermediary organisation to Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Nigeria, the global body responsible for promoting responsible oil palm production, Alhaji Fatai Afolabi, said that the new feat is a reflection of the nuanced reforms by the Obaseki administration to boost oil palm development.
