Agric, real estate are Nigeria’s future sources of revenue generation —UK-based IT expert

A United Kingdom-based information communication technology expert, Funso Akinwunmi, has predicted that the agriculture and real estate will soon emerge the country’s major sources of revenue and employment generation as was the case with crude oil in the past.

Akinwunmi urged governments and private sector operators to harness the unquantifiable potential in these two important sectors to rejig the economy, tackle housing and food crisis as well as drive national growth and development.

The ICT expert disclosed this after seeing the ongoing land preparation for the massive plantain and cassava farm project within the Pelican’s Greenish Acre Farm Estate at Kobape corridor Ogun State on Friday.

The project is an initiative of real estate entrepreneur, Ambassador Babatunde Adeyemo, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pelican Valley Nigeria Limited, the promoter of Pelican Valley Estate Laderin, Pelican Valley’s Brief Estate, Pelican Ecostay Apartments and Pelican Greenish Acre Farm Estate at Kobape, all in Abeokuta.

Akinwunmi, who said he was impressed with the novel initiative and its magnitude, said the time has come for Nigerians to take farming seriously to boost food production and security and stop importation to grow local industries while stressing that provision of affordable housing to people will solve half of their problems.

He urged the state government and Nigerians in diaspora to support Pelican Valley’s contribution towards addressing food security challenges and housing deficit in Nigeria.

He said, “I urge Ogun State government to support Pelican Valley for adding value to the state. The state should support Babatunde Adeyemo for this project. It is a programme, it is not even a project because it is a massive programme, not just the Pelican Valley, but also the Pelican Brief and the greenish acres. He is adding value to communities and also adding values to the government as well because he is making government’s work easy in terms of providing housing for the citizens and residents.

“It is amazing the work he is doing. Housing is very very important. Once you are able to create and provide accommodation for people, you have solved most of their problems. And in fact that is adding value to the communities.

“I came from the United Kingdom and the fact that we have also keyed into this initiative also means he is adding value to us because in future I will be able to come back to Nigeria and in fact to Abeokuta to stay and have my mini estate here (inside the Pelican Brief). It is very commendable to have someone like Dr Babatunde Adeyemo to encourage us from diaspora –from UK, Canada, because I know he has clients globally. He is not just a local investor, he is a global and international investor as well.

“I will encourage a lot of Nigerians in the diaspora to key into this initiative. It is the reason I came to Nigeria to see the good work Dr Babatunde Adeyemo is doing. I will encourage Nigerians in diasporas to key into the project.”

Earlier, Adeyemo, who reckoned Akinwunmi as one of the personalities he admired most, not only for building great people through ICT knowledge transfer, but also for keying into the Pelican Valley projects, assuring him and hundreds of other clients based abroad that they will continue to get satisfaction for the valuable partnership.