Over 25m “hungry Nigerians” to get reprieve as Ukraine builds grain terminal in Lekki, Lagos

Less than 24 hours after President Bola Tinubu declared state of emergency on the nation’s food sector, Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food on Friday signed an MoU with Lagos Free Zone, a venture of the Tolaram Group, to build a grain terminal at the Lekki port, Lagos.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in London on Friday at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London with the Ukrainian first Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Taras Vysotsky, signing on behalf of the Ukrainian side.

The partnership will bluster the continuous supplies of Ukrainian agricultural product to Nigeria and the entire African continent, to mitigate against the dwindling food security in the region.

Vysotsky said: “Cooperation between the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food and the Lagos Free Zone will be aimed at the creation of the necessary infrastructure for ensuring further ceaseless supplies of Ukrainian agricultural products both to Nigeria and the entire African continent with the main goal of ensuring the food security in the regions in greatest need.

‘‘The Ukrainian agrarian sector will continue playing an important role in ensuring international food security, especially when the world population is increasing.”

Persecondnews gathered that 25 million Nigerians are at a risk of facing hunger between June and August 2023, this is a sharp increase from the projected 17 million, according to UNICEF.

A NEMA report had said the devasting flooding of 2022, damaged more than 676,000 hectares of farmlands which decreased harvest and increased the risk of food insecurity in Nigeria.

The report identied the Northeast as the worst hit region with over three million people currently facing food insecurity.