FG approves N6bn for construction of agriculture ministry headquarters

The Federal Government has approved N6 billion for the construction of new corporate headquarters for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammed Abubakar, made the disclosure while speaking with State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday, April 26.

Abubakar said the the proposed headquarters will be a 10-storey building and will be named Agriculture House.

The minister said: ”The memo we presented was for the construction of our corporate headquarters here in Abuja.

”Since the relocation of the ministry to Abuja over 30 years ago, we’ve not had a corporate headquarters.

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”We are currently using an office of the Federal capital Territory Administration which is just About three floors and cannot accommodate the entire ministry.

”We have about four departments which are outside the main ministry.

“So, the Federal Capital Territory Administration has allocated a plot to us in the cadastral zone, totalling about 1.84 hectares at a very strategic place for the construction of a 10-storey building which we will call Agriculture House.”

He said they had purchased a building in Abuja some years back but it later turned out not to be adequate for the services required thus, it would be sold and the proceeds would be added to a budgetary provisions (2022 and 2023) of the sum of N6 billion to commence the project.

According to the minister, the ministry will source for more funds through intervention from the presidency and other sources, to complete the project.

On the rising cost of rice, Abubakar disclosed that efforts had been intensified by government to ensure availability of the commodity with a view to bringing down its price since Nigeria was the number one producer of rice in Africa.

“There are 10 rice mills that are being constructed under a Public Private Partnership arrangement and the President has given us intervention to complete those mills.

”We will commission some of them before the end of this administration,” he added.

The Star