Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, on Monday, said his administration was committed to making the business climate more friendly for investments, commending the establishment of a new multimillion-naira cashew processing factory in the state.

AbdulRazaq said the agenda, among other things, was to make Kwara a hub for cashew nuts processing in Nigeria.

The governor was speaking in Ilorin, the capital city, during a working visit to the Annie Glidden Commodities Nig. Ltd at Eiyenkorin, a newly established cashew processing plant in the state.

“My coming here is to encourage local investment. As you know, Kwara is a major producer of cashew nuts, and Nigeria is putting more interest in cashew processing. So it is a good thing to have a local production and make sure we export processed cashew nuts, rather than raw cashew nuts. So this investment is a major one. I think this is about the third major cashew company in the state,” he told reporters shortly after touring the facility.

He said it was logical and would be more lucrative to have the cashew nuts processed locally for export than to ferry out the raw nuts, adding that the government would leave no stone unturned to encourage all cashew processing companies in the state to thrive.

AbdulRazaq acknowledged the commitment of AG Commodities Nig Ltd to grow the local economy through their investment, and congratulated them on the start of operation, saying the administration was open to partnership.

“Our vision is to have Kwara as the leading processor of cashew in Nigeria. So this is another step to come here and look at their investment and encourage the company, and to also see how the state can partner with the company to scale up the processes,” he added.

The governor said Kwara would focus on agro-processing as a strategic roadmap to economic growth and prosperity.

While speaking, the Managing Director, AG Commodities Nig Ltd, Ademola Adesokan, said they located the company in Kwara because of its strategic location in the cashew belt, its good road network, as well as the business-friendly policies of the government.

He said at least 120 youths from the state have been engaged in the company for manual handling of the cashew nuts daily.

“With the road network, we feel like Kwara state is a very strategic position to site our company. It is in the middle of Kogi, Ogbomosho, and Kwara regions. You can see we are on Ogbomoso Road, which is a very strategic place and good for our business. So we are happy to be here and we thank the Governor for this visit.

“It is very manual intensive. Even after we must have processed with our automated processing machines, we still have to deal with about 25 percent of the cashew nuts manually. Every single cashew nut has to be held by hand. A lot of the time we have 120 to 130 working here every day.

“We have ready-made markets in the US and UK. We also have a local line that will be in stock very shortly,” he said.