The Kwara State Government has invested over N38bn in road construction and rehabilitation in the rural and urban areas from May 2011 till date.

The investment is to stimulate industrialisation and commerce as well as boost agricultural development and food security, the Commissioner for Works and Transport, Dr. Abubakar Amuda-Kannaike, has said.

He observed that a major problem of food security in the country was post-harvest losses.

Amuda-Kannaike stated that a good road network and improved transportation system would reduce post-harvest losses as they would make the farmers to transport their agricultural produce from the farms to the markets easily.

He said concerted efforts must be made by all stakeholders to boost food security in the country.

The commissioner spoke to journalists while inspecting some road, bridge, drainage and culvert projects in Ilorin.

The projects include the 1.2-kilometre catchment road network at Agbadam; 1.85km road at Umar Audi; Flower Garden bridge; 2.5km GRA road network; 4.1km Oke-Andi-Taoheed road; 2.8km Akerebiata channelisation; and the 230-metre Opomalu-Isale Maliki road.

Others are the 800-metre Alawonla-Dada road; 735-metre Abayawwo-Guniyan Asalapa road; 1.7km Kokorokan road; 1.9km Henry George-Mini Campus road; 1km Lao-Airport road and the .5km Abdulsalam Alao road, among others.

Amuda-Kannaike also said the state government had spent heavily on road construction in order to fast-track industrialisation as well as to boost tourism and solid mineral mining.

According to him, a good road network and functional transport system will attract investment in the industrial sector as investors will be assured that the output from their industries will be easily transported to wherever they are needed.

He said, "In this administration, from inception till date, including new roads that we met and the ones we are doing, we have invested over N38bn.

"The key policy trust of the Ministry of Works and Transport is that we are driven by the policy trust of sister ministries. When we focus on the rural roads, we are looking at the Ministry of Agriculture.

"We are looking at the government's plan to drive our economy through agriculture. That is why we created a lot of rural roads. There were two communities that brought their harvest by swimming to the market; now, we have connected them with a bridge.

"In Osi, the same thing has been done. We have done a lot of rural roads to facilitate inputs to the farms and out to the metropolis. We have also done roads based on considerations like tourism and solid mineral mining, among others. We do not construct roads for political patronage."