Date: 2018-02-16

OPENING TEXT OF ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE CO-FOUNDER OF HEART AND CAPITAL NIGERIA LTD, MALLAM UMAR FARUK OBA ADELODUN, AT THE PRESS LAUNCH HELD TODAY THURSDAY 15TH FEBRUARY 2018.

"Benjamin franklin once wrote; the essence of agricultural revolution is simply the ability to keep more people alive under worse conditions"

Courtesies

I am highly humbled to welcome you all to this occasion aimed at creating awareness, sensitizing the general public as well as encouraging all and sundry on the need to glorify the advocacy for diversification of the economy of our dear nation. Thank you all for coming.

There is no doubt that Agriculture remains the only exit route for Nigeria out of the current persisting economic recession and I believe that this route can only be effectively accessed through aggressive and consistent Agric-Revolutionary Techniques, (ART).

Every now and then a revolutionary company comes along, they come up with a new idea that solves an old problem and it changes everything in the company's sector. We have heard of companies like Apple in the Telecoms Industry,...Heart and Capital Nigeria Ltd, a leading Agric Revolutionary Company aimed at strengthening of the nation's food security, is set to create windows of opportunities for Nigerians on the need to discover more sustainable business acumen towards a reliable future.

Heart and Capital Nigeria Limited is not new a company, although we have some new business partners here seated, we are only performing an official unveiling/launch with a far-reaching approach to members of the public especially stakeholders in the agric sector.

It will be noteworthy to categorically state here that the journey of what we are launching today started with a dream of owning a farm. I cannot and will not deny how lucky we have been over the years.

I hereby see today as a great day we have been dreaming of and with consistent stride and improvement on our business ideas, we are fortunate to be here at this moment with our ever relentless and formidable team and partners to set a pace we can all leverage on as individuals and corporate bodies.

Distinguished audience, we are proud to inform you that our vision is sharp, our goals are clear, although, our resources might not be huge yet, but our will is strong and we stand tall and ready to face the challenges that lie ahead.

We have faced and surmounted numerous challenges in the past years. I remember when we started on our Two Acres land, we encountered challenges of clearing, mechanization, expertise and the most horrible of all was that few days to the harvest of our produce, thieves invaded our farm and carted away everything. I am sure that my colleague will share some of these experiences in the course of his presentation.

But we didn't stop there, you see when we started this whole thing we went into it solely because we wanted to make money, but in the process of facing the challenges, figuring out the problems that came along the way and watching these life grow and develop, we grew the passion for it. I often hear people talk about passion as if it is something you are just born with. This passion however, we learnt. And with this passion we didn't stop because, without passion, any sane person would give up because it would very easy for frustration to set in.

So out of these challenges and difficulties, like seed we grew. We were forced to go out and seek knowledge, learn and unlearn something's, attend seminars, be part of different trainings and then we tried again and this time ladies and gentlemen, we got the much better results.

Equipped with the wisdom we had acquired through our trials and failures, we saw an opportunity. An opportunity to serve those in similar situation that we once were by offering some services such as Professional Farm Management and farm Consultancy which eventually prompted the establishment of Heart and Capital Farm Estate located in the outskirt of Ilorin, Kwara State. With this platform individuals and corporate organizations can engage in Farming themselves in an enabling environment or engage farming By-Proxy with high return on investment (my partner will also share more on this in his presentation). We decided to embark on this project and offer these services because we believe we can do things differently and better in the face of numerous odds.

Another thing you will be briefed on today is the farm business training that the company will be kicking of this year. Our major target are the youths like us because the youths whom are regarded as the bedrock and the future of the nation constitute 85% of the growing Nigeria's population and If really, Agriculture is the future of our nation you all have to agree with me when I say that there is an urgent and inevitable need to fuse these 2 (agriculture and youths) together. In order to guarantee the nation's food security and compliment the effort of the government in the area of job creation, we at H&C with the support of our partners are ready to effectively pilot this fusion.

At this juncture, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it is pertinent to show our kind appreciation and delight to some eminent personalities who have shown kindness and interest in our vision. We are extremely lucky to have the unyielding support from our parents as well as prominent high profile individuals among who are; His Royal Highness, Oba AbdulRazaq Adegboyega, the Olojoku of Ojoku, Hon. Justice Lambo Akanbi, Hajia Maryam Bolanle Yusuf (FCEM, FAIE), Dr Wale Akingbade to mention but few.

Distinguished audience, the road ahead is long but that is no reason to slow down. I hereby use this medium to call on government at all levels, corporate organizations, individuals across the country, to key into these projects of revolutionizing the Agricultural Sector through our numerous windows/platforms of bountiful harvest with even options of little or no physical commitment and maximum security assurance.

And to my fellow youths, this is our moment. Our stories are singular but our future is shared. What is required is recognition on the part of every youth, that we have duties not just to ourselves but to the nation as well. Duties we shouldn't grudgingly accept but seize gladly. Duties to learn and unlearn something's, teach and get to work, to open new doors of opportunities for ourselves and the future generations in order to restore prosperity and grow the farming business. I hope we can start these duties today

Before I hand over to the host who will be introducing our partners as they briefly tell us about some of their products and its importance in the agric sector, I want to say once more on behalf of H&C Nig. Ltd, welcome it's a pleasure to have you all here.

Thank you all for your kind attention.