Lagos consumes most food of all states with its 21m residents
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Lagos, the smallest state by land mass, consumes N4.5 billion worth of food daily along with 50 per cent of beef produced nationally, living up to its billing as the most populous state with the greatest industrial output that makes it the richest.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu proudly dwelled on the statistics at a workshop on “Implementation of Food Systems Transformation Pathways in Nigeria 2022”.
The workshop was organised by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning in collaboration with Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Economic, Planning and Budget on Food Security.
Sanwo-Olu said although Lagos covers only 0.4 per cent of Nigeria’s territorial land mass, the smallest in the country, it accounts for over 60 per cent of national industrial and commercial activities, per the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He stressed that Lagos, a coastal state with an extremely limited arable land space, is home to about 21 million residents. They are from virtually all parts of Nigeria and several other countries across the world.
“Its residents consume about N4.5 billion worth of food daily and 50% of beef produced in the country running into several billions in other trading activities with markets cutting across all the local government areas in the state,” Sanwo-Olu said.
He sought collaboration with other South West states to implement the Food Systems Transformation Pathways (FSTP) 2022 as improving the food systems would influence positive changes and as well address multiple challenges.
“I am aware that the need for states across the six geopolitical zones to be adequately sensitised on the implementation of the National Food Systems Transformation Pathways is the basis for this workshop.
“It gives me great pleasure to note that Lagos State was selected to host the South West geopolitical sensitisation which I consider as an acknowledgement of the positive impacts our policies and efforts are making in the agricultural sector.
“As a state government, we will continue to provide infrastructure and incentives to support all private sector initiatives where required.”
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Lagos and Ogun stand out
Lagos and Ogun are the only two out of 36 states that made more Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) than federal allocations between 2017 and 2020, according to a report SBM Intelligence, per by Nairametrics.
“By 2020, we were back to just Lagos and Ogun generating more internal revenue received from Abuja. This state of affairs indicates that almost all of Nigeria’s federating units are not fiscally healthy,” the report said.
SBM warned that falling oil revenues have put states in precarious situations, leaving them unable to meet their basic obligations such as paying salaries, wages, and pensions, talk less of providing social services and infrastructure.