Ogun State Government has completed the first phase of the 21km Ibooro/Imasayi Ayetoro road in Yewa North Local Government, ahead of the planned 20,000 hectares rice production and processing farm in Ogun West. 

Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun said it would ease the movement of farm produce from farms to markets, reduce rural-urban migration as well as enhance accessibility to hitherto hard-to-reach agrarian villages. 

Governor Abiodun equally launched the construction of the second phase of the road and said the road work was an integral part of his administration’s resolve not to develop one part of the state at the expense of the other. 

The governor said given the place of Yewa North and Imeko Afon in the area of agriculture, he would turn Yewaland to the rice capital of Nigeria, to serve as an enduring legacy of his administration. 

He said the state was looking for 20,000 hectares in the area for investors, who had concluded plans to invest in rice production and processing, and appealed to monarchs in Yewaland to deliberate among them to make available a suitable site for the project not later than a month. 

The strategic road, which created direct and indirect jobs during construction, is expected to foster trade and commerce among communities within and around its corridor. 

The inauguration of the 7km phase 1 was attended by Deputy Governor Noimot Oyedele-Salako, former Deputy Governor Salmot Badru, Chief Iyabo Apampa, Senator Gbenga Kaka, Balogun Agboola Alausa, the Olu of Ilaro, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle among other royal fathers.

Source: The Nation