Governor Abdullahi Sule on Wednesday performed the groundbreaking for the construction of a N30 billion Cassava Industrial City in Kokona, a project that is already bringing the resolutions of last week’s National Economic Council conference on economic development to life.
The groundbreaking, which took place barely 24 hours after the close of the two-day NEC meeting on the Renewed Hope Ward Development Planning, positions Nasarawa as one of the first states to translate the Council’s call for grassroots value addition into visible action.
Speaking before a gathering that included traditional rulers, landowners, and financial partners, Governor Sule said the project aligns with the national push for domestic processing of raw materials.
“The whole idea from the NEC conference is about developing the ward. Today, we are not just talking about a ward. We are talking about a village. By the time we have this project—the biggest cassava industrial city in Nigeria—then we have developed this ward in the area of cassava,” he stated.
The industrial city, promoted by Sequoia Farm Limited, is designed as a complete value chain operation spanning cultivation, processing, and the production of ethanol, starch, high-quality cassava flour, animal feed, and bio-energy, with phase one of the project set to cultivate 500 hectares under an outgrower model that reserves 80 percent of participation for women from the host community.
Governor Sule told the company’s management that their greatest security lies in the goodwill of the people.
“Once the community buys into this project, you are one hundred percent secured,” he said. He pledged to monitor the relationship between the investors and the community to ensure fairness on both sides.
The Governor disclosed that even as the cassava groundbreaking was held, another team of investors from India was touring Toto, Nasarawa, and the border between Akwanga and Kokona in search of 10,000 hectares for a complete cashew nut value chain.
He described this as the practical application of the NEC resolution that Nigeria must stop exporting raw materials without processing.
The ceremony marked the formal commencement of a five-year investment cycle projected to run from 2025 to 2030, with the first phase expected to empower 500 outgrower farmers, 80 percent of them women, and introduce advanced agricultural processing technology to a community that until now had largely relied on raw commodity trading.
Governor Sule, who will receive an award as Industrial Governor of Northern Nigeria from Leadership newspaper, said his motivation was not personal recognition but the sight of local youth operating and repairing the sophisticated machines the project will introduce.“I may not be the governor by then. But I will be the happiest person if I am still alive to come back here and witness that development,” he said.
Ibrahim Abdullahi, Managing Director/CEO of the Nasarawa State Investment Development Agency (NASIDA), said the project was a direct outcome of the Governor’s economic strategy.
“Development does not happen by accident. His Excellency has matched words with action. Before his coming, raw materials from Nasarawa left without value addition.
Today, we are changing that,” he said.Cheta Udezue, Chief Executive of Sequoia Farm Limited, recalled that when his team first visited the site three years ago, the access road was impassable.
He credited Governor Sule’s investment in infrastructure and his belief in the corridor for making the project possible.
“Every development project, the government is the biggest shareholder—sometimes through infrastructure, sometimes through policy. His Excellency provided both,” Udezue said.
Dr Mustapha Bakano, President of the National Cassava Growers Association, described the Kokona project as the first 10,000-hectare cassava industrial city in the country. He commended Governor Sule’s resilience, saying, “it takes resilience to achieve anything in this country.
”The paramount traditional ruler in Kokona Local Government Area, the Abaga Tony, HRH Mr. Lawrence Ayih JP, thanked the Governor for his personal intervention in resolving delays that had stalled the groundbreaking. “You have not only brought investors; you have restored peace in this area,” he said.
