Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has unveiled the Produce for Lagos Programme alongside a ₦500 billion Offtake Guarantee Fund, aimed at transforming the state’s food system and enhancing food security. The governor also revealed that Lagos’s annual food economy has grown from ₦6.5 trillion to an impressive ₦16.14 trillion.
Speaking on Wednesday at the official launch ceremony, Governor Sanwo-Olu emphasized Lagos’s strategic role in Nigeria’s food value chain, noting that the state consumes over 50% of all food traded in the Southwest, making it the largest food market in the country.
“Research shows that nearly 50% of food in Lagos is lost between harvest and market due to poor storage and transportation,” he said. “The COVID-19 pandemic exposed our food system’s vulnerabilities, showing us that we must become more self-sufficient and resilient.”
Sanwo-Olu traced the evolution of his administration’s agricultural agenda, noting that the state responded by launching the Lagos State Agricultural and Food Systems Roadmap in 2021. “To implement this roadmap, we increased the agriculture budget from ₦4.2 billion in 2018 to nearly ₦80 billion today— the highest in Lagos history,” he said.
In a symbolic move to reflect its broader mandate, the Ministry of Agriculture was renamed the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems in 2024. The governor said the new ₦500 billion Offtake Guarantee Fund and the Produce for Lagos Programme are logical next steps in the transformation journey.
“This fund will catalyse private capital, stabilise food prices, and de-risk agricultural operations across the value chain,” Sanwo-Olu explained. “It’s not a subsidy, but an investment tool providing working capital for bulk traders, financing for logistics operators, liquidity for aggregators, and credit support for food producers.”
He added that the initiative will be executed through the Lagos Food Systems Infrastructure Company (LAFSINCO) and supported by Special Purpose Vehicles such as the Lagos Bulk Trading Company, Ekolog (Eko Logistics), and the Produce for Lagos Fund.
The governor said the programme will guarantee off-take contracts, provide access to financing and logistics, and link Lagosians directly with the state’s dynamic food economy. “It will boost agricultural production, reduce dependency on informal supply chains, create jobs, and improve economic returns across the food ecosystem,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu highlighted several key achievements under his food systems agenda, including the Ounje Eko Discount Markets, the ₦500 million Ounje Eko Farmers Subsidy Programme, the Central Food Security Systems & Logistics Hub in Epe—currently the largest food hub under construction in West Africa—the Middle Level Agroproduce Hub, and the Lagos Agripreneurship Program (LAP).
The governor concluded by affirming that these programmes align fully with the federal government’s National Policy on Agriculture and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda on food security.
