“I’m a happy man today,” Rotimi Akeredolu, then governor of Ondo State, south-west Nigeria, told investors on 10 June 2021, when he launched the Red Gold Project, an oil palm development initiative.
“I call on investors to come. This is a haven for industrial development. We cannot do without palm oil. We are taking the Red Gold project seriously. It will help us reduce our reliance on crude oil.”
Ondo is not just a top agricultural state producing major cash crops; it is also one of the major states producing crude oil, the country’s major source of revenue. With the dwindling oil revenue came the realisation to diversify into agriculture, the nation’s former cash cow before the oil boom of the 1970s. The government began to look inward towards generating more foreign exchange through the promotion of agricultural exports by encouraging states to come up with initiatives.
