Anambra State Government has signed an agribusiness deal with Folio Holdings Limited for the establishment of agricultural projects worth ₦60 billion in the state.
The memorandum of understanding which was signed by Governor Willie Obiano and the company is a bumper package that includes production of agricultural produce for commercial and export purposes as well as the establishment of an agricultural institute in the state.
The agreement which will be the 11th agricultural project embarked upon by the administration is expected to bring about more investments into the state.
The memorandum of understanding will have Folio Holdings contributing N54billion naira of the total amount while the state government is expected to contribute the remaining N6billion naira to finance the deal.
The project, when completed, will be a 4000 hectares of rice, fish and various agribusiness operations integrated with an industrial processing park and an agricultural, tech and business institute.
According to the Governor, “We have started recruitment of youths, especially in agriculture to give them basic rudiment training in agriculture. “Before my administration, the GDP of the state was N1.8trillion, but now it has grown to N3.9 trillion. From the record, my administration contributed N2.3trillion to the growth.”
The Chairman of Folio Holdings in signing the memorandum also expressed his confidence in agriculture citing it as the new oil to take over the mainstream of the economy.