With more than 25 million people to feed and over 70 per cent of its food supplies coming from outside the state, Lagos is betting on a network of food hubs and a N500 billion offtake guarantee scheme to reduce its dependence on long-distance food supply chains and stabilise food prices.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the strategy was part of a long-term plan to transform the state from a largely consumption-driven market into an integrated food production, processing, logistics and distribution centre capable of supporting jobs, investment and ultimately, agricultural exports.
Speaking yesterday at the commissioning of the Lagos Fresh Food Hub in Agege, Sanwo-Olu said the state was building a food economy designed to handle more than 1.5 million metric tons of food annually, support 1,500 food trucks daily and unlock a N500 billion market guarantee for farmers under the Produce for Lagos Programme.
The governor said Lagos could no longer depend on fragmented supply chains to feed its rapidly growing population, noting that the heavy reliance on food brought in from other parts of the country exposed consumers to high transportation costs, post-harvest losses, inefficient storage and price volatility.
According to him, the emerging network of food hubs is designed to bring farmers, aggregators, traders, processors and consumers into a more coordinated market structure.
Sanwo-Olu said the Mushin food hub, commissioned in December 2023, had already recorded more than N4 billion in transactions over 228 market days, created over 7,000 direct and indirect jobs and attracted more than 850 registered vendors.
He said similar facilities were being developed in Opebi, Agege, Ikorodu and Bombata, adding that the network would eventually extend across all Local Government Areas and Local Council Development Areas in the state.
The governor said the infrastructure expansion was being backed by the N500 billion Offtake Guarantee Fund under the Produce for Lagos Programme, which he described as a response to two of the biggest constraints facing farmers – access to finance and reliable markets.
Sanwo-Olu said the flagship of the initiative was the Lagos Central Food Systems and Logistics Hub at Ketu-Ereyun, Epe.
‘The Lagos Central Food Systems and Logistics Hub at Ketu-Ereyun, Epe, is designed to handle more than 1.5 million metric tons of food annually and service more than 1,500 food trucks every day,’ he said.
He added that the facility would combine cold and dry storage, processing and repackaging facilities, quality-control laboratories, warehouses, logistics bays and digital trading platforms, describing it as a critical piece of infrastructure in Lagos’ food security strategy.
Sanwo-Olu said construction of the Epe facility was at an advanced stage and would be completed and commissioned before the end of his administration.
Sanwo-Olu said the food transformation programme could eventually move Lagos beyond meeting its own food needs to becoming an exporter of agricultural commodities.
‘The question before us has never been whether there is a market. There will always be a market. The real question is whether we can build a food system worthy of the size, ambition and economic strength of Lagos,’ he said.
He called for stronger collaboration among farmers, private investors, financial institutions, logistics operators, traders, technology providers, development partners and communities to make the state’s food transformation agenda sustainable.
The Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Systems, Abisola Olusanya, said the newly commissioned Lagos Fresh Food Hub in Agege was projected to facilitate more than N5 billion worth of food transactions annually.
She said the facility was designed not simply as another conventional food market, but as a strategically positioned middle-level food hub linked to the state’s broader Central Food Security Systems and Logistics Hub.
Olusanya asked rhetorically: ‘Every project begins with a problem that needs solving. For us, the challenge was clear: how do we move food more efficiently into and across a city of this size, reduce what we lose along the way and, at the same time, begin to properly understand a food distribution system that has remained largely invisible to us?’
She explained that the state was responding through an interconnected food distribution network based on a hub-and-spoke model, with the central logistics hub serving as the ‘mothership’ while middle-level hubs would be located closer to consumers and major trading centres.
According to her, the Agege facility, alongside the existing Mushin hub and other hubs under development, would operate as interconnected nodes within the same distribution system.
‘The thinking behind these controlled hubs goes beyond food distribution. We are also tackling some of the problems that have become inseparable from the way food is traditionally traded in a city of this size,’ she said.
Olusanya identified poor handling and inadequate storage, post-harvest losses, traffic congestion associated with food trading and logistics, poor sanitation and difficult trading conditions as some of the challenges the hub model was designed to address.
She said relocating food trading activities into properly designed facilities would enable the government to improve waste management, organise loading and offloading, strengthen sanitation and provide traders with a cleaner, safer and more dignified trading environment.
The commissioner said the model would also help bring a largely informal food economy into a more organised and visible system without undermining the commercial relationships that sustain Lagos’ markets.
The Agege hub, developed in partnership with Origin Tech Group, occupies about 7,000 square metres, including a 4,000-square-metre trading floor capable of accommodating between 350 and 400 vendors.
The facility also has about 1,200 square metres of dry storage with a capacity of approximately 800 metric tons, as well as cold storage capacity of about 300 metric tons.
It includes a purpose-built seafood section, parking space for between 80 and 90 vehicles and 10 electric vehicle charging points.
Olusanya said the scale of the facility was deliberately designed to provide the storage, logistics and trading capacity required to handle significant volumes of fresh food moving through Lagos.
‘Based on the trading capacity of the facility, the number of operators it can accommodate and the volume of food it is designed to handle, we project that the Lagos Fresh Food Hub, Agege, will facilitate well in excess of N5 billion in food transactions annually,’ she said.
To ensure that the facility operates beyond the conventional market model, Olusanya said the state had developed a 351-page operating framework to guide its management and day-to-day activities.
She said produce would move into the facility through farmers, aggregators, processors, suppliers and bulk dealers before reaching commissioned agents, retailers and institutional buyers.
‘Cold and dry storage facilities will allow produce to be preserved where immediate sale is not necessary, while the governance framework will cover operator selection, produce receiving and quality control, inventory management, sanitation, waste management and the use of trading spaces,’ she said.
Olusanya said the system would also provide the government with more reliable data on food flows across Lagos.
Chairman, Agege Local Government, Abdul-Ganiyu Obasa, commended the Lagos State Government for locating the fresh food hub in the area, saying the project would strengthen Agege’s position as an important node in the state’s expanding food economy.
Obasa said the facility would improve the way food was received, stored and distributed in Agege while creating opportunities for traders, food processors, transport operators, farmers and other businesses connected to the food value chain.
He said the project was particularly significant because of the growing interest of food processors and other investors in Lagos, adding that improved food infrastructure would help the state attract more private-sector investment while creating jobs and expanding economic opportunities for residents.
‘Agege is not just receiving a new food market; we are gaining a strategic piece of infrastructure that can strengthen the entire food value chain. This facility will improve food distribution, create opportunities for businesses and further position Agege as an important gateway in Lagos’ food economy,’ Obasa said.
He pledged the council’s support for the effective management and security of the facility, saying its success would depend on collaboration among the state government, local government, traders, investors and residents.
The commissioning attracted members of the Lagos State Executive Council, members of the Lagos Council of Chiefs, traditional rulers, food and agricultural stakeholders, private-sector operators and other dignitaries.
The Agege facility is expected to become one of the key links in Lagos’ emerging food hub network as the state seeks to build a more efficient system capable of moving food from farms and production centres to consumers while reducing losses, improving market access and strengthening food security.