By Ayodele Popoola

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In a bid to improve access to agro products in rural communities, Ondo State Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP) has sensitized residents of Ile-Oluji  and Molege communities on the construction of the first phase of Agro-Logistic Hubs in the state.

The Agro-Logistics Hubs are a rural developmental project financed by  development partners- the World Bank and the French Development Agency in collaboration with the State Government to actualize the second component of the RAAMP project, which is Agro-Marketing.

National Coordinator of the Federal Project Monitoring Unit, FPMU represented by the Head of the Agro-Logistic Unit, Saliu Abubakar congratulated the people of Ile-Oluji for being the first beneficiaries of the modern market construction in the whole of the state.

He said the sensitisation programme was organized to rub minds with the stakeholders of the community to know what they want and also to allow the stakeholders to be part of the project from the design stage in order to make it sustainable.

He said the project include giving  support to concerned groups financially and to expose them to various trainings.

Giving the overview of the design, the Project’s Design Consultant, Clifford Odiai assured that the design would be all-encompassing as the best of the market design would be implemented in order to serve as a model to every other place that would benefit from the initiative.

The State Project Coordinator, RAAMP, Femi Adetomi said the project is a Federal government market upgrading initiative to intervene in rural access to enable produce from villages to be assembled for sale at  the hubs.

In his response, the Jegun of Ile-Oluji, Oba Olufaderin Adetimehin thanked the government for the rare privilege given to his community to be the first  to take  advantage  of the  project.

He assured the government of the total cooperation and support of the community from the starting of the project to its completion.