Rivers N3.2Bn Songhai Farms back for sale as govt woos back agric investors

Rivers State’s most expensive agric project, Songhai Farms, said to be the biggest Songhai Farms model in Africa, is back in the market to be sold to the highest bidder. This was disclosed in a statement released Thursday night by the Commissioner of Information and Communications, Paulinus Msirim.

Songhai was put up for sale in 2014 but political violence and crisis that kicked in around 2013 in the state scared away prospective bidders from the US, UK and South Africa; with John Deere of Moline in Illinois (US) as the leading contender. The project was to decide to stop any sale in 2015, preferring to go fully commercial.

Now, the state government says the project that has since been abandoned and overgrown with grasses should be sold off. There has been a clamour for the return of Songhai Farms and most other agric projects in the state before the present administration came on board.

The statement said the decision was taken at the state’s executive council meeting of same day. He said the state executive council approved the concession of existing agricultural facilities in the state to investors who are interested in bringing their expertise to bear in harnessing the potentials in the sector. “The council said the decision is predicated on the fact that the state is being driven to become the agricultural hub in the south-south region.”

The statement said the Commissioner of Agriculture, Fred Kpakol, had unveiled the details saying ready investors would be expected to indicate interest in any of the agricultural facilities existing in the state.

“He said there are fish farms and multi-crop school-to-land farms in the 23 local government areas of the state including the Songhai Farms that are now available for investors who want to key into the agricultural programme of the government to achieve food security and generate employment for Rivers people.

“The commissioner also said the name of the cassava plant at Afam, Oyigbo local government area of the state has changed name to Rivers Cassava Processing Company limited. Kpakol said the change became necessary because one of its partners, DATCO changed the name it used in 2011 on the contractual agreement, which made it cease to be a recognised entity.”

The government went ahead to announce resumption of Fruit Garden Market in Port Harcourt (Ogbum-nu-abali Fruit Market) which was rebuilt after an evening fire disaster in September 2018, saying those allocated the modern stalls must pay the necessary fees within deadline or lose the allocations.