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Tuesday 03 September 2019
BUSINESS DAY
property&lifestyle New jobs coming as Farmforte of Netherlands berths on Gracefield Island CHUKA UROKO
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n a move that is clearly a big plus for Gravitas Investment in particular and the Nigerian economy at large, a major agricultural value chain management company from Netherlands, Farmforte, has committed to the Gracefield Island where it will be building facilities for its operations in Nigeria. Farmforte is coming on the heels of 9Mobile, the vibrant telecom provider which, just a couple of weeks ago, entered into an enterprise telecom solution agreement with Gravitas, the Gracefield Island project owner. 9Mobile was followed closely by HealthCare Outpost, a health service provider based out of the United States, which was welcome on Tuesday, August 27, to Gracefield Island as its main operation centre in Nigeria. Gracefield Island is a city development project set to cover a land mass of 100 hectares. It is designed and being constructed to function as a green, integrated urban conurbation. The vision of its developers is to build a livable and sustainable city where technology will hold sway as
the new way to go. At an off-take contract signing event at the weekend, André Schaap, the managing director of Farmforte, said his company’s ambition fits snuggly into the vision of sustainability of Gracefield Island and its cutting edge technology in enhancing farm productivity, preservation and helping small holder farmers to access both domestic and international markets which align with the vision and implementation plan of Gravitas to make Gracefield Island a desirable destination for enterprise and wealth creation. Osazuwa Osayi, Country Representative and Chief Executive of Farmforte Solutions in Nigeria, explained to BusinessDay in an interview at the event that their interest in Gracefield Island is because the city is strategically and centrally located, considering the different kinds of customers they have across Lagos. He added that it was easy to take a quick decision to co-locate its core operation facilities on Gracefield Island as the destination reflects the ethical approach of his company to business, pointing out that the city’s infrastructure implementation plan was so
L-R: Tokunbo Adeyemi, executive director, Gravitas; Olufemi Babalola, CEO, Gravitas; Osazuwa Osayi, country representative, Farmforte, and Andre Schaap, CEO, Farmforte, at Gracefield Island, last weekend.
clear and encouraging that they could enhance the efficiency of their operation by being on Gracefield Island. A major highpoint of the coming of Farmforte into Gracefield Island is wealth creation through job creation which aligns with the vision of the city. “About 350 jobs will be created within our first year on Gracefield Island. That will be increasing as our production progresses to about 850 direct jobs and a
couple of other indirect jobs,” Osayi assured. Presently, Farmforte which opened for business in Nigeria in 2014 has created about 300 direct jobs. Indirectly, they have created over 800 jobs and, according to the country rep, they engage about 22,000 small holder farmers that produce different kinds of farm products. In a country where unemployment figure is very high, estimated at 20 million
by the National Bureau of Statistics, this is a good development given its impact on household income and the economy at large. In welcoming Farmforte, Olufemi Babalola, the Chief Executive of Gravitas, expressed his delight in having Farmforte at Gracefield Island and committed his company to giving them necessary support in order for their business to thrive even more. The company will be set-
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway: FG urges patience, understanding as reconstruction resumes CHUKA UROKO
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s work resumes on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway with the reconstruction of Berger to Kara Bridge stretch, motorists and residents along that corridor have been urged by the federal government and the contractor to endure the expected inconveniences with patience and understanding. The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is one of the busiest highways in Nigeria with high volume of traffic on daily basis. The reconstruction of the highway, which has lasted for too long, is being undertaken by the construction giant, Julius Berger. Funsho Adebiyi, director, Federal Highways, South West, who led a delegation of Federal Ministry of Works and Housing officials as well as traffic regulatory agencies to the construction site on Thursday last week, appealed to road users to also comply with diversion and traffic rules. Expectation is that there will be no gridlock on the expressway during the reconstruction period which commenced yesterday, September 2 and would end on December 15 because, according to the highway di-
rector, “major lanes had been rehabilitated to curb gridlock.” “We are appealing to motorists to observe speed limits around the construction zones, obey diversion signs and bear the temporary inconvenience that comes with construction; we have instructed our contractors to make adequate signage available, as well as lighting systems, reflexive materials and other diversion signs to cope with night trips,” he revealed. “We want to beg all road users to comply with these simple rules, drive safely, and drive slowly, especially
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around diversions. To people who live around here, we want to appeal to them because, definitely, traffic will be increasing; we beg them to tolerate and accept us for this moment; it is difficult to construct a road of this nature without any discomfort,’’ he noted. Adebiyi informed that work was going on simultaneously on various sections of the highway beyond Lagos to fast track construction on the important highway, disclosing that arrangements had been made for adequate towing vehicles with all relevant traffic
agencies for speedy clearance of breakdown to avert gridlock on the highway. Hygenus Omeje, Lagos Sector Commander of the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC), also assured of gridlock-free period, explaining that the Lagos command was coordinating and working in synergy with other traffic regulatory agencies to ensure free flow of traffic. Omeje noted that the section to be worked upon was just about 600 metres and was not enough to cause too much stress for road users. “The section is very small for
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anybody to lose sleep over; we are looking at a length of about just 600 meters, so it is not anything fantastic. “The only thing is that we are at the critical section of this corridor. The Kara Bridge is like the neck to the expressway. So if you twist the neck, the entire body will definitely have problem; but I can assure you that nobody is going to sleep on this section. There is going to be adequate deployment of personnel and resources,’’ he assured. He disclosed that FRSC had three heavy towing trucks and would call for more, if there was need, from sister agencies to ensure free-flow of traffic. On his part, Clement Oladele, Ogun State Sector Commander of the FRSC, said security meetings were held concerning the highway to ensure safety of road users during construction, warning miscreants to stay away as the FRSC would not take it easy with criminal elements. Jubril Adeyemi-Oshodi of Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) said that the agency would give the public real time information to ensure smooth ride. He added that they would give traffic updates using the state’s traffic radio station. @Businessdayng
ting up a facility in Gracefield Island for processing their products and distributing same to different parts of the world. “Farmforte is an agriculture value chain development company. We do processing of raw materials and make them ready for the market; we supply our products to retail outlets across the country and other parts of the globe,” he explained. Continuing, Osayi said, “largely, we have three brands, including sustainable agriculture, value addition and market creation. On sustainable agriculture practice, we grow products either directly or through farmers on our network. We add value to these different products. Our main focus is sweet potato. We add value to sweet potato crops and export to European markets. We have sales offices in these markets and other parts of the world.” He hinted that Gracefield Island would be a distribution theatre for them because, from there, they would be moving products to different parts of the country and, the same way, products from different parts of the country would be moved into the place for processing.
Non-bankable projects, assetliability gap top reasons .... Continued from page 33
funds are preserved for the future, insurers sit mostly on short-term funds. “Policy-holders can call for their funds anytime. So it doesn’t make sense putting those funds in real estate with long gestation period,” Ibisomi said at the conference, adding, “except for some life insurers that invest in real estate because pulling funds out of life insurance is rigorous.” Insurance is yet to get warm embrace in Nigeria with a penetration rate of 0.3 percent below peer African nations, aggravating the disinterest of insurers in real estate. Experts also blamed fund managers’ apathy for real estate on the country’s weak regulatory framework and poor infrastructure. This is because no housing sector can thrive in an environment with inadequate facilities. Drawing lessons from South Africa, Ibisomi posited that the country was able to revamp its housing sector by putting in place friendly regulations. “Nigeria’s infrastructure stock to GDP of 35 percent is below South Africa’s 80 percent. It will be nice if fund managers can start from infrastructure financing before moving to alternative asset class,” he said.