By Anthony Areh
Ekiti state government says its investment policy was gradually yielding positive results as a privately-owned snail project, with a capacity to produce 2.6 million kg of snail meat per annum, is set to be commissioned later this month.
Commissioner for Trade, Investment and Industry, Muyiwa Olumilua said the snail farm, Egbeja Snail Village, was located in Okemesi Ekiti, Ekiti West Local Government area.
Speaking on Friday, in Ado Ekiti, while receiving the management of FarmKonnect, owner of the project, Olumilua said the state administration was working to improve the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), by providing an environment that could enable investments to thrive.
The Commissioner said the administration had equally come up with investor-friendly policies, which had accounted for the large number of investors who had already made Ekiti their choice destination for business.
Olumilua also assured that the administration would not relent in implementing programmes and policies that would attract both local and foreign investments to the state, while reiterating its readiness to partner with any organization, with genuine business plans, that aimed to reduce poverty and unemployment in the state.
Earlier, the Head of Sales and Commodity Trades of FarmKonnect, Oloruntobi Olusegun, disclosed that the 7000-sq-metre modern Snail Breeding Facility (Egbeja Snail Village), the largest of its kind in the country, had been completed on a capital outlay of N220m.
Oloruntobi, who thanked the government for the support given to the project, said Gov Kayode Fayemi had demonstrated that the administration was ready to welcome investors with open arms.
He hinted that the project would not only focus on production of snail meat, but would also explore slime extraction for commercial sales.
” Snail slime is a much sought after item in the production of cosmetics, and has the capacity to yield a higher return on investment (ROI) than even snail meat”, he said.
