The First Lady of Edo State, Her Excellency, Betsy Obaseki has commended young people who are investing in Nigeria, saying they are demonstrating the capacity to function as future leaders of this nation.

Her Excellency Betsy Obaseki made the remark while inspecting the Farm Forte Food Valley, which is a one thousand hectares facility that comprises processing facilities for various crops such as rice, beans, sesame seeds etc as well as on site farms for the cultivation of some of the processed crops. The company is situated in Evbolekpen Community, off Ekekhuan Road, Benin City, the Edo State capital.

The Edo First Lady who was accompanied by the Country Director of United Nations Development Organization, UNIDO, Jean Bakole said drawing from the Endsars experience these young investors are blazing the trail and called on others to emulate them.

Her Excellency Betsy Obaseki who visited the company’s 100 thousand birds fully automated poultry farm, beans processing plant, sweet potato farm and storage facility, among others commended the young promoter, Mr Osazuwa Osayi for his vision and hard work to implement such a groundbreaking integrated agro processing complex to meet both local food demand as well as for export, which will boost the nations economy and improve Nigeria’s GDP.

The UNIDO Country Director, Mr Jean Bakole in his remarks commended Governor Godwin Obaseki for attracting this investment to Edo State and the young entrepreneurs for their efforts at producing commodities that will meet export standards.

He said “whatever we produce in agriculture needs to meet the minimum quality standards; first it must protect our local consumer, secondly it must be ideal for the international consumer to whom we are going to export our products because our objective is to ensure that all products coming from this farm and from Nigeria are not rejected at the border simply because they don’t meet the minimum quality standards.

“I also like to commend the efforts of the Governor of Edo State, His Excellency Godwin Obaseki for attracting these projects to Edo State, which is the commercial hub of the region as well as a route to other parts of Nigeria.”

One of the Managing Partners of Farmforte Osazuwa Osayi told newsmen that “for us really we believe that growth in agriculture is two or three times more effective than any other sector in reducing extreme poverty and improving economic growth
and also in ensuring food security. So for us we are using agriculture as a sector to drive economic development in the country and ultimately in the continent.”