By Femi Akinola
The Commissioner for Agriculture in Ogun State, Bola Owotomo, has declared that the state government is set to intervene in the 4,000 arable land used mainly for rubber plantation as well as other agricultural investments.
The rubber plantation popularly known as Ilushin Estate Limited in Ogun State, was established in 1957 by the defunct Western Region but later handed over to Ogun with creation of more states. The rubber plantation was used to supply latex and rubber lumps to some tyre manufacturrers such as Mitcheclin, Dunlopand others prior to relocation of these investors out of Nigeria.
According to the State Commissioner for Agriculture, the fiscal and financial intrevention being made on Ilushin Estate Limited by the state government prompted the issuance of the right issue of 201,000,000 ordinary shares of N1.00 each at N2.48k pershare to existing shareholders.
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Speaking at the Ilushin Estate Limited Board Meeting held recently at Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, Owotomo declared that Ogun State Government and the existting shareholders were sourcing for more funds in order to expand the rubber plantation and other agricultural investments to eran more foreign exchange for the state and Nigeria as a whole.
The Commissioner who doubled as the Chairman of Board of Directors of the Ilushin Estate Limited said: ”This Estate has been an asset of the state government but it has not been fully optimised for a long time and when I cam on board as the General Manager of Ogun State Agricultural. Development Corporation in 2020, we began a turnaround operations in Ilushin-Estate Limited.
”The turnaround operation sw its profits grow from N14 million to over N120 million in just two yers after, this despite the fact that there was no capital infusion into the Ilushin Estate Limited. We then realised that for us to take advantage of opportunities abound in the rubber industry and in the agric sector, we have to do what we are doing.”
According to the Commissioner, the Illushin Estate Limited currently have nursery capacity to plant 240 hectares of rubber this planting season noting that the authorities in the Estate intends to double the capacity by 2025 planting season projecting that within the next four years, the Estate should be able to plant 2,000 hectares of rubber.
Omotowo stressed further saying: ”In Nigeria, we don’t have end users of rubber; we don’t have Dunlop and Mitchelin, converting cup lumps to tyres any more in the country, so the cup lumps are being processed and exported to foreign countries,thereby improving forex inflows into Nigeria.”
