Kunle Adelabu
The Lagos State Government has revealed that a total sum of N918 million in terms of sales, has been recorded at the Mushin Fresh Food Agro-Hub within six months of its existence.
Ms. Abisola Olusanya, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Systems, also stated that the hub has provided the state government the opportunity of having necessary data pertaining to foods and also address the high costs of foods.
She disclosed this at a news conference held at the Kaltho Baguda Press Centre, Alausa, Ikeja, on Wednesday, during which she announced the rebranding of the ministry with additional, “Food System” to its name, as well as the plans of the state government to ensure affordable foods for the Lagos residents.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in December 2023, inaugurated the newly constructed middle-level food agro-hub in Idi-Oro, Mushin, to proffer a new way of food distribution, reduce wastage and curtail rising food costs.
“The Mushin food hub is one of many that we should have in the state. The impact of the hub is still being felt up to now.
“We started off with only Saturdays as the market days and subsequently in the month of March, we added Wednesdays. We have 339 registered vendors working with us in multiple food items.
“In these 40 days of the market’s operations, we have recorded food transactions of almost N1 billion, precisely N918 million transactions, at the Mushin hub with the 339 vendors,” Olusanya said.
Speaking further on the hub in Mushin, Olusanya said that a total of 180kg rice and 26, 000 kg of garri were sold within the period in review.
“Over 26,000kg of garri, over 18,318 kilos of poultry meats, over 180kg of rice and over 55,000 crates of eggs have been sold in this one facility, as well as many other food items but these are just the ones we felt were critically not to mention”, she revealed.
“And considering the fact that the Lagos State Government has not charged any vendor to operate in this vicinity, in the last six months no vendor has been charged. When you consider the volume of transactions and scale of what is happening at the hub, it is a form of subsidising food prices for Lagos residents.
“You can only imagine what it costs to keep the hub running, but due to our role in ensuring that food prices stabilises and is kept down, we can continue the operations of the hub.
“The Mushin Food Hub is just one of many as you can see that for the first time, we can give data around the quantity of specific food items coming into the market,” Olusanya said.
