The Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Prince Gbolahan Lawal on Sunday expressed the readiness and determination of the state government to complete all abandoned projects in the agricultural sector, including the Songhai project.

Lawal made the disclosure on Sunday when he led a delegation of the state government’s officials that included the Special Adviser to the Governor on Agriculture, Ms Abisola Olusanya, to inspect the Songhai project facility.

The Commissioner said particularly that the Songhai Model of the Agricultural Youth Empowerment Scheme (Agric Yes) located in Avia-Igborosun in the Badagry Local Government Area of Lagos State would be completed.

He noted that the Songhai Model of the Youth Empowerment Scheme is one of the major empowerment programmes in the agricultural sector for youths being implemented by the state government.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Songhai Project commenced activities in 2012.

The Lagos state government signed an MOU with the Songhai Regional Centre, Porto Novo, Benin Republic, but was abandoned within the last four years.

The project has infrastructure such as Poultry Pens, Piggery Pens, Concrete Fish Ponds, Green House, Dormitories, Classrooms, Restaurants, Staff quarters and administration building as well as a Biogas Plant.

He said upon assumption of office in July, he commissioned the development of a roadmap with the theme, “A Sustainable Inclusive Growth Strategy with the Citizens at the Core’’.

He added that one of the outcomes of that road map was the need to empower no fewer than 15,000 youths and women within the next four years in line with the roadmap.

He recalled that the Songhai model was a product of a collaboration between the State Government and the Songhai Regional Centre, Porto Novo, Benin Republic.

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