Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos State Governor, on Wednesday commissioned a new Mid-Level Agro-Produce Hub in Agege as part of efforts to overhaul food distribution in Nigeria’s commercial capital and contain rising costs for its 25 million residents.
The facility in Pen Cinema is the third in the state’s hub-and-spoke network, following hubs in Mushin and Abijo, and is designed to shorten supply chains and cut post-harvest losses.
The Agege hub adds to a broader Lagos Food Systems Transformation Agenda that includes the under-construction Central Food Systems and Logistics Hub in Ketu-Ereyun, Epe.
Speaking at the launch, Sanwo-Olu said the hub represents more than a new infrastructure. “The commissioning of this Mid-Level Agro-Produce Hub in Agege is not simply the unveiling of another piece of infrastructure. It is the physical expression of a larger vision, one that places food security at the heart of our development agenda,” he said.
He noted that feeding Lagos “demands the transformation of the entire food system,” not just increased production, because “over 70 percent of that food is produced outside our borders” and travels through “fragmented supply chains.”
At the center of the agenda is the Lagos Central Food Systems and Logistics Hub in Ketu-Ereyun, Epe, which the governor said will be “the largest food logistics hub in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the capacity to service more than 1,500 food trucks daily and to handle over 1.5 million metric tonnes of food annually.”
“Work is at an advanced stage, and it will be commissioned before the end of this administration,” he said.
The central hub will be supported by mid-level hubs designed to “shorten supply chains, reduce unnecessary layers of intermediation, improve produce handling, and make food distribution more efficient.”
He pointed to early results from the network. Since opening in December 2023, the Mushin hub “has recorded transactions valued at over N4 billion across 228 market days, with more than 850 registered vendors and over 7,000 direct and indirect jobs created,” Sanwo-Olu said.
“Well-designed market infrastructure does far more than provide a place to sell food: it improves farmers’ incomes, reduces post-harvest losses, creates jobs, and strengthens local economies.”
On Agege, he added: “To the traders, farmers, and aggregators who will work here: this facility was built for you, and its success now rests in your hands.”
Supporting the physical hubs is the Produce for Lagos Programme, launched in July 2025 with a N500 billion Offtake Guarantee Fund.
The program marks “a fundamental shift from a supply-driven to a demand-driven agricultural model,” the governor said.
“Rather than producing without certainty about where their output will be sold, farmers… now produce against the organised, guaranteed demand of the Lagos market. This addresses the two critical challenges farmers face: financing and market access.”
Sanwo-Olu said the state will expand further, with construction “progressing steadily at Opebi and Bombata,” and additional sites identified in “Ikorodu, Apapa, Festac, and the Lekki axis.”
The long-term goal is “to establish structured food hubs across every Local Government and Local Council Development Area of Lagos State, so that no community is left behind.”
Speaking also at the commissioning, Abisola Olusanya, Lagos State commissioner for Agriculture and Food Systems described the hub as the newest node in a hub-and-spoke distribution network designed to move food more efficiently across the megacity.
The 7,000-square-metre facility in Pen Cinema includes a 4,000-square-metre trading floor for 350 to 400 vendors, plus 800 metric tonnes of dry storage and 300 metric tonnes of cold storage.
Olusanya said the project addresses long-standing inefficiencies in how food reaches Lagos residents.
“Every project begins with a problem that needs solving, and for us the challenge was clear: how do we move food more efficiently into and across a city of this size, reduce what we lose along the way,” she said.
The hub is meant to tackle post-harvest losses, traffic congestion from informal trading, and poor storage by consolidating aggregation, logistics and retail in “properly designed spaces” while keeping commercial decisions with traders.
The Agege hub connects to a larger system anchored by the Central Food Security Systems and Logistics Hub, or “mothership,” with other middle-level hubs already operating in Mushin and Abijo.
She said the network is also a data tool. Alongside the infrastructure, the ministry developed a 351-page operating framework to track “what is coming in, where it is coming from, the volumes moving through the facility, what is being stored and where losses are occurring.”
The hub will begin full operations in six weeks after onboarding of operators is completed, she said.
According to her, the facility is projected to facilitate in excess of N5 billion in food transactions annually.
It includes a purpose-built seafood section, parking for 80 to 90 vehicles, and 10 electric vehicle charging points. Olusanya cited Mushin as proof of concept, noting it was used to pilot the Ounje Eko Food Discount Market across 66 locations during the 2024 food inflation period.
“Our ambition is that this should not feel like a conventional food market,” Olusanya said.
“From the quality and variety of produce, to the organisation of the trading areas, seafood section, cold chain, storage, sanitation and the overall shopping experience, we want Agege to demonstrate what a modern food market can look like and, over time, become a benchmark… across Africa.”
The project was developed in partnership with Origin Tech Group.
Josephine Okojie-Okeiyi is a journalist with over five years’ reporting experience. She writes on industry, agriculture, commodities, climate change, and environmental issues. She is fellow of Thomson Reuters Foundation and Bloomberg Media Initiative for Africa.
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