By
Fawaz Adebisi
Lagos State, under the aegis of Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has revealed plans to hold an exciting, but memorable Lagos Food Festival for residents and participants from across Africa in its 2022 edition.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Abisola Olusanya, disclosed this, stating that the festival, which was slated Sunday, December 11, is an exhibition bringing an array of a variety of mouth-watering seafood, local and African delicacies, fruit juices, drinks and more
While explaining how prepared the state is fir the festival, Olusanya said that the date picked for the event was to allow a large turnout from all walks of life, saying it is worthwhile to end the year on a joyous festive occasion.
She stated that the event, themed ‘A taste of Africa’, would be bringing a host of culinary talents to the occasion from different countries in Africa, with participants having assorted indigenous foods as well as experiencing other people’s cultures.
“We are organising this more importantly for our stakeholders across the various value chains, considering the fact that Lagos has large marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa. We are using the platform to bring all value chain actors, particularly food producers to interact directly with the final consumer.
“This year is a taste of Africa and part of what we would be showcasing will be the ‘Jollof Wars. So, there is always this banter between Nigeria and Ghana on who has better jollof rice. So, this event will afford the participants to determine which is the best and a lot more,” she said.
She therefore noted that the event would not only promote fun, but would also help the producers to receive direct feedback from the consumers on how they can improve their products and increase their sales.
Olusanya expressed confidence that the economic gains of the state through the event would double as participants are expected from other African countries like Senegal, Ghana, and Togo.
“At last year’s event, we had over 7,500 participants and generated over N25m,” she added.
One of the chefs, expected at the food festival, Vice President, Culinary Arts Professionals Association, Nigeria (CAPA), Gbolabo Adebakin, assured the participants would experience indigenous ingredients that are unique to Lagos and Africa.
“And we are going to do something called the African dining experience, we are encouraging people to be part of this because when you come to the food festival, you’ll see what you haven’t seen before, this year, food will shine, Lagos Food will shine.”
