Niger State governor Mohammed Bago has announced an ambitious road construction project that he claims will surpass the efforts of Federal Ministry of Works.
The governor disclosed this to journalists on Saturday night after receiving an award at the Nigeria Excellence Awards in Public Service (NEAPS) held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He also expressed confidence that upon completion, Niger State’s road network would surpass that of the federal government.
Bago described the agricultural initiatives as “a complete revolution,” detailing plans to establish storage facilities with a capacity of nearly one million tons in every local government area.
He said the state is implementing renewable energy storage systems on farms to combat post-harvest losses.
The governor also highlighted a significant public-private partnership, announcing a collaboration with Dangote Group. The company has provided 500 40-foot containers to be placed in farm estates for product storage.
He said, “This is a push to do more. This award was received in favour of Nigerlites for our deliberate attempt to transform agriculture.
“Niger State has provided itself as a pilot state and we are grateful that both the private sector and the public sector understand exactly what we’re doing. So, let me thank Nigerlites for their unwavering support.
“In terms of infrastructure, we have been able to start work on over 1,000 kilometres of road across the state, unprecedented, I can say maybe more than the Federal Ministry of Works. Yes, Governor Wike has been able to commission some streets, we’re not there yet, but once we’re done, we’ll overtake Wike.”
Speaking of storage of agricultural products, he said, “Definitely, it’s a complete revolution in agriculture, and we’re putting up storage facilities of almost a million tons in every local government.
“We’re providing renewable energy storage systems so that we can reduce our post-harvest losses in some of our farms.
“Again, we have a collaboration with Dangote, where he has given us five hundred 40Ft containers to put in our farm estates so that we can store these products. So, a lot of efforts are coming in both private and public sector initiatives, so don’t worry too much about that,” he added.
