Niger State To Open New Agro Zone, Airport As Tinubu Lends Support 

Niger State To Open New Agro Zone, Airport As Tinubu Lends Support 

President Bola Tinubu is scheduled to inaugurate both the Agro Processing Zone in Minna, Niger State, and the Minna Airport on Monday.

Governor Mohammed Bago shared this information during an event in Minna, the capital of Niger State, where he was honored as the Grand Patron of the Niger State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).

A group of journalists were taken on a tour of the airport and the agro processing zone, which is set for unveiling by President Tinubu.

Governor Bago mentioned that the airport is nearly completed, with only minor touch-ups remaining, positioning the State to become a key player in the North Central aero hub.

Approximately 1,000 hectares of land are prepared for use.

Governor Bago highlighted plans for drip irrigation in greenhouses, expected to be one of the largest in Africa. He detailed that a dedicated agro-processing zone at the airport would facilitate the distribution of fresh vegetables and fruits within Nigeria and overseas.

In addition to the initial 1,000 hectares, it was revealed that another 1,000 hectares opposite the current site will be utilized for dairy production, with products intended for export to other states nationally and even globally.

He said: “On the other side of the land, there is another 1,000 hectares where we are going to have dairy products. The meat and everything leaving here will be moved to the rest of the world. You know Niger State sells an average of half a million cattle to Nigerians and outside Nigeria daily.

“So, I will have to redirect it in a way that you don’t need to transport these cattle at all and in Niger State you can take the meat that is frozen anywhere and it will create employment, create value change.

“This is a free zone and in a free zone, you can see anything and we are very ambitious to expand the 2,000 hectares of land around the airport to 10,000 hectares of land. We are starting up from the 2,000 and we will keep going.

“We are constructing about 140 kilometers of water irrigation to this place from Shiroro dam and these are our partners and the people that we are partnering with from outside this country. You can see that they are ready for work.

“This project is an ambitious 50-year programme, but the first phase will be finished in the next few years so that Mr. President can commission it. We are bringing in 80 Megawatts of power to this airport. We are going to attract all of our investments to Niger State. There will be a power holiday for industries who want to set up here. 

“We can give them free energy because we are housing four hydropower dams in Niger State and we subsidised 60 per cent of the power consumed in Nigeria and we are asking for 13.5 percent derivation from the Federal government. 

“We are generating so that our people can benefit from what we are doing. Since 1960 that Nigeria got independence, Niger State has not benefited from these hydro dams. People are displaced. Our farmland are washed with excess overflow from the dams.

“Niger State has strategically positioned itself now to become Nigeria’s water reservoir so that the overflow from all these dams and rivers can now be stored for irrigation and we plug them during the crisis.”

NUJ President, Chris Isiguzo, while speaking to newsmen during the tour with Governor Bago, said: “I learned about this airport several years ago, but at some point, I also learned that it had gone terribly down, and coming here today to see the massive transformation that is ongoing in this place speaks volumes about the commitment of the present administration in the State.

“If you go around the airport, you can see that it can compete with any other airport in Africa and that shows that the government has invested so much in this airport which is supposed to be a Federal airport. But the state through this hardworking governor has taken it upon itself to embark on this massive work. 

“We have looked at the Governor’s idea of putting in place an agro-processing zone, a free trade zone. It will operate within the airport and that is a very great idea, an initiative by the governor. This way, the consumption of red meat, blood would have been a thing of the past.

“This is a very good thing. Before now, we were dependent on oil. There is a need to diversify and that is what the governor has done by focusing on agriculture.”