Ogbomoso has been an agricultural market centre for generations. Located in the heart of Oyo State, it is one of the largest cities in the Southwest, with deep roots in farming, trade, and community life. Its mango orchards, cassava fields, and cashew plantations are productive — but the infrastructure to turn that production into prosperity has never arrived.
The Gap
Farmers in and around Ogbomoso sell raw produce at low margins. Mangoes are sold fresh and often spoil before reaching urban markets. Cassava is processed by hand into garri and fufu at the household level. Cashew nuts are exported raw, with the value-added processing happening thousands of miles away. The pattern is familiar across rural Southwest Nigeria: agricultural potential without agricultural infrastructure.
The TransCom Solution
The first TransCom cluster is being built to change this. With formal approval from the SWDC Investment Committee, the Ogbomoso site will anchor:
- Imni Global's fruit concentrate processing — creating a commercial market for mango production that currently has no processing outlet
- Nexium Exports' cassava processing — linking local cassava production to global export markets at scale
- A full agro-trading centre for aggregation, grading, cold storage, and quality certification
- Social protection services — a women's cooperative hub, child nutrition outreach, and social safety net registration
- A skills and microfinance centre — vocational training, digital literacy, and capital access for smallholder farmers
Community at the Centre
What makes Ogbomoso the right place to start is not just its agricultural potential — it is the strength of its community structures. HRM the Soun of Ogbomoso has endorsed the programme and is integral to governance at the pilot site. Traditional authority, women's cooperatives, and community associations are not add-ons — they are the foundation.
The TransCom here will demonstrate that rural transformation is possible when infrastructure is designed around the community it serves.
Construction preparation is underway. The target launch is 2026.