 First, let me bring you the very warm greetings of President Mohamed Abu-Hari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who would have liked to be here himself, but for a previously agreed engagement outside the country. It is my singular honor and pleasure to join you at this momentous event, the launch of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones, the SAPZ program. It always seems completely intuitive that a nation such as ours, with large tracts of arable land, a relatively cheap labor, should be able to feed itself, process food, and produce for domestic use and export, creating also in the process millions of good-paying jobs. But that's clearly not the case. What we have today, aside from a few large commercial farms, are mainly aggregations of subsistence farmers who do the best they can, without the support of a clear and dedicated plan for industrialization of agriculture. The deliberate development of value chains in the crops that they grow, and a pathway to net exportation of their produce. The result is suboptimal agriculture and food production outcomes, food insecurity, fewer good-paying jobs in agriculture, and of late, food inflation and food insecurity. For food inflation and insecurity, we have, of course, now being worsened by the global value chain disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine, and drought and flooding caused by climate change. So the well-thought-out answer to our predicament seems to me is the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone program, the SAPZ program. The program was recently approved by the Federal Executive Council. It is a major cross-cutting value chain investment effort driven by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in alignment with the national agricultural technology and innovation policy of the federal government to incentivize agro-industrialization for private sector development. Also specifically, the SAPZ program, or SAPZ program, is designed to develop multiple clusters of agricultural transformation centers, or ATCs, and agro-industrial hubs, AIHs, within major clusters of high agricultural production, where functional infrastructure like roads, power, water, communication, et cetera, are provided to attract private investment into modern agro-processing and value addition to locally produced crops, livestock, and related agribusiness activities. So where a zone, for example, has an advantage in rice production, for example, the well-resourced SAPZ will be located there to bring together agricultural producers, processors, aggregators and distributors to operate in the production, processing, and industrialization of rice. The SAPZ program is a five-year program, as we've heard, being implemented by the federal government of Nigeria in partnership with the African Development Bank, the AFDB, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, EFAD, the Islamic Development Bank, state governments and private investors. And it is happening in seven participating states, Kano, Imo, Kaduna, Cross River, Quara, or Yohanogu, and the federal capital territory, and is expected to achieve the following. One, import substitution, which will reduce our current import, food import bill. Two, it will boost revenues from agricultural exports. Three, it will create wealth for rural farming communities. Four, it will create new sustainable jobs, especially for women and young people. And five, it will stem rural urban migration. Six, it will boost rural livelihoods and revive stranded public and private sector-funded assets. And seven, it will decisively improve food security. Eight, it will vastly improve the business environment for agro-industrial processors, as it will improve their productivity, and it will enable value-addition for inclusive, adaptive, and economic growth. The program is now a critical component of our agricultural strategy, which is to accelerate the industrialization of our agricultural sector, with the objective of being ahead of our constraints in providing food, nutrition, and wealth for the largest population on the continent. The first phase, as we've heard, is in eight locations, the eight states. And in the next phase, we'll bring on board another 18 states. The SAP ZX also stand to benefit from two salutary developments. The first is technology and innovation. And there has been an incredible upsurge, as you probably have noticed, in the number of agritech startups in Nigeria, all along the entire agricultural value chain. Some of those innovations have vastly improved the quality of inputs. Some use innovation to improve yields. Some to exponentially increase investments in agribusiness by various crowdfunding techniques. The National Information Technology Development Agency, in NICDA, is also set to deploy innovative technology and digital skills to support the implementation of the SAP ZX. The other is the great opportunity that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement opens up for Nigeria to be the bread basket and the agribusiness hub for all of our region. This convergence of resource and opportunity is certainly auspicious for the great impact that we look forward to from the SAP ZX. The operation of the SAP ZX will also leverage on other federal and state government programs, including the National Livestock Transformation Plan 2019 to 2028, and the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan. The agricultural sector was pivotal in pulling our economy out of recession and is the single largest employer of labour. So we must incentivise agriculture through greater investments and an enabling environment for private sector participation and to advance our national agroindustrialisation drive. Before I conclude, I must say that the federal government of Nigeria is profoundly proud of the strategic relationship with the African Development Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, EFAT, and the Islamic Development Bank over the years in building our long-term national prosperity for our country, especially through agriculture. And we thank them for their steadfast support through the years. So today we are at a profoundly important moment in our agricultural odyssey. If the special agroindustrial processing zones program delivers on its objectives and we have no doubt that it will, then we won't in less than a decade deal a fatal blow to food insecurity. We'll create millions of good-paying jobs and we will create an agroindustrial opportunity such as has never been seen on this continent at least. And we'll radically improve export earnings from agriculture, which is why your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it is with great hope for the future and in anticipation of great success that I now officially launch the establishment of the agroindustrial processing zones in Nigeria. Thank you very much. God bless the federal republic of Nigeria.