Lawmakers at the Lagos State House of Assembly on Thursday told contractors handling the Imota Rice Mill to speed-up work on the project in order to meet the December 2020 completion timeline.
The Chairman, Lagos State House Committee on Agriculture, Kehinde Joseph, made this known during an inspection your with other members of the house.
Grassroots.ng gathered that the Committee was overseeing the project to ensure that percentage of work done so far is commensurate with the money already released by the State government.
He expressed the need for the mill to start operations as soon as possible, adding when it becomes functional in December, prices of local price would collapse from the present fluctuation above N20,000.
In his words: “We have gone round to see how far they have gone in respect of the rice mill in Imota. We are here to see the percentage of work done so far if it commensurate with the percentage of the money released to them by the government. We are being told that hopefully by December, this Mill will start functioning”.
“About two or three months ago, the Acting Commissioner for Agriculture told us when she visited this place that the percentage of work done so far was 80 percent or 85 percent and with the level of the money that has been released to them, I believe they should be able to finish the job before the end of the year.
That is why I want to call on the contractors to hasten the job because, by the time the Rice Mill starts functioning, hopefully by December, it is going to collapse the price of local rice, especially in Nigeria”, he added.
Joseph commended the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture for a great job done so far on the project, adding that the creation of over 250,000 jobs which will come with the completion of the project will reduce the high unemployment rate in the State.
“I want to use this opportunity to commend the Acting Commissioner and her team, they have done a very good job. She told us during the inspection that this mill is going to generate more than 250,000 job opportunities when completed, that alone is something laudable which we are all looking forward to”, he added.