The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sigvent Industrial Cluster Limited, Benjamin Onigbinde, has hailed the Federal Government for awarding road construction contracts across key agricultural corridors in Oyo State, describing the initiative as a strategic investment that will stimulate agriculture, attract investors and accelerate industrial development.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Onigbinde commended the government’s commitment to improving infrastructure in critical agricultural areas, noting that the road projects would enhance connectivity between major farm belts in Ogbomoso, Iseyin and the Ilorin Road axis with processing centres and export routes.
He said the development would drastically reduce post-harvest losses, lower logistics costs and facilitate the seamless movement of raw materials to agro-industrial clusters.
Onigbinde particularly applauded the Federal Government’s focus on roads leading to the Sigvent Industrial Cluster along the Ogbomoso–Ilorin Road corridor.
According to him, with the Nigeria Association of Best Foods and the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) already working on value-addition initiatives for cassava and cashew within the Sigvent Cluster, the road upgrades would unlock the entire agricultural value chain from farms in Oyo State to processing factories and onward to Lagos Port and Ilorin International Airport for export.
The Sigvent CEO, who is also the Convener of the Ogbomoso Economic and Investment Summit, described reliable road infrastructure as the missing link in Nigeria’s agro-industrialisation drive.
He said the projects would boost farmers’ incomes by reducing transport losses and dependence on middlemen, de-risk investments for small and medium-scale enterprises establishing processing plants within the Sigvent Free Trade Zone, and strengthen the ease of doing business under Oyo State’s Agricultural Industrial Processing Zone (AIPZ) designation for Ogbomoso.
Onigbinde also called on the Federal Ministry of Works and the Oyo State Government to ensure the timely completion and proper supervision of the projects while extending similar interventions to other agricultural corridors across the country.
“Roads are the real incentive for investors. With quality roads, Sigvent’s cluster infrastructure and NEPC export support, Oyo State can become Nigeria’s agro-processing capital,” he stated.
