The Oyo state government, on Friday, in Ibadan inaugurated two committees to work on agriculture revenue expansion.

The two committees are the Framework for Responsible and Inclusive Land Intensive-Investment in Agriculture (FRILIA), and disbursement link indicator for the State Action on Business Enabling Reforms (SABER).

The state’s acting governor, Bayo Lawal, inaugurated the committees.

While inaugurating them, Lawal explained that SABER “is a programme for result initiative of the World Bank, which is critical to agriculture and land acquisition for commercial agriculture.”

He said the programme aligned with the efforts of Gov. Seyi Makinde to expand the scope of doing business and attract more investors to the state, especially through agribusiness.

Mr Lawal said the World Bank project, which is in collaboration with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), is a three-year performance-for-result programme, with relevant stakeholders on resource control and management from 2023 to 2025.

“FRILIA is one of the Disbursement Link Indicators (DLI) of State Action on SABER programme, critical to the agricultural and land acquisition for commercial agriculture.

“As indicated, this project is backed up by the World Bank and it is to expand the ease of doing business in Oyo state.

“FRILIA is based on four cardinal principles, namely: environmental and social sustainability of investment; recognition and protection of land rights; state land acquisition and resettlement.

“The objective of FRILIA is to aid the state government’s effort in attracting large scale agricultural investments that guarantee shared benefits for the investors and host communities on land

“It is to equally aid the state in compliance with best international practices on the ease of doing business, especially for export.

“It is also to drive the state’s economy with agribusiness using the Public, Private Development Partnership (PPDP) business model; provide a responsible framework that will encourage sound social and environment management practices,” the acting governor explained.

He charged the members of the two committees to bring their wealth of experience to bear on the project as, according to him, all other agencies would depend on them.

The steering committee is chaired by the acting governor and it has 14 other members.

The technical committee is headed by the commissioner for lands, housing and urban development, Williams Akin-Funmilayo, and it has 15 members.

(NAN)