The Gluwa blockchain infrastructure platform will transform the Lagos State agricultural sector through the digitisation of agricultural assets, Chief Executive Officer of the company, Tae Oh, has said.
The project would entail partnering with the Lagos State Ministries of Agriculture, Finance, Science and Technology as well as the Lands Bureau on the integration of physical farmlands into non-fungible tokens in a bid to provide access to digital asset backed loans for all Lagos State farmers.
Agriculture being one of the backbones of the Nigerian economy, with 35 per cent of the population in its employ must be modernised for government and the organised private sector to realise its full potential and attendant benefits.
According to the five-year Lagos State Agricultural and Food Systems road map, where the sector is projected to generate upwards of $10 billion by the year 2025, it will be of immense value for agricultural assets to be identified, recorded, and traded using innovative blockchain technology.
The company explained that at a recent visit of the Gluwa team to His Majesty, Oba Gbolahan Lawal, the Oniru of Iruland and former Commissioner of Agriculture in Lagos State, the team detailed their plans to build a gateway for local farmers to access the international markets via borderless financial services ranging from decentralized finance loans to selling on global commodity futures markets.
The administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu aims to make Lagos State fully selfsufficient in the areas of wealth generation, value creation, food security and industrialisation of the agricultural sector.
Sanwo-Olu said: “Our strategies for sustainable Agricultural Development shall focus on thre
pillars. First, we will grow the upstream sector through interventions by leveraging
technologies that can lower the cost of production of value chains; Focus on growing the
midstream and downstream sectors that are of value and lastly, we will improve on private
sector participation by developing and initiating policies that will encourage more private
investments in agriculture”.
The Governor also pointed out that the State had already started the revamping of its
Agricultural Land Holding Authority (ALHA) to support investment in agriculture, giving
assurance that the coconut belt would also be strengthened with increased private sector
involvement.
Sanwo-Olu further listed some landmark investments that the State has begun
and would help with the smooth delivery of the roadmap, such as the Lagos State Aquatic
Centre of Excellence (LACE) that would boost fish production from 20 per cent to 80 per cent; the Imota Rice Mill; the Lagos Food Production Centre Avia, Igborosu-Badagry aw well as state-wideagriculutre-focused initiatives.
