Continued from last Monday Edition
Kwara State also known as ‘the state of harmony’ was created on 27th May 1967. At its creation, the state was made up of the former Ilorin and Kabba provinces of the then Northern Region and was initially named the West Central State but later changed to “Kwara”, a local name for the River Niger. The capital of the State is Ilorin, which lies 306km northeast of Lagos and 500km southwest of Abuja.
Even though Kwara State has reduced in size as a result of further state creation exercises in Nigeria, it still boasts of a landmass of 36,825 square kilometers and a population of a little over 2,591,555 million people.
Due to the climate and topography, the state is well suited for the cultivation of a wide variety of food crops like yams, cassava, maize, beans, rice, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables, etc. In Kaiama and Baruteen Local Government Areas in particular, the climate and vegetation are well suited for the rearing of livestock. The mainstay of the economy is agriculture as nature has endowed the state with adequate vast and rich agricultural land for both road and exportable cash crops.
Geographically, Kwara State is bounded in the North by Niger State, in the South by Osun and Ondo States, in the East by Kogi State and in the West by Oyo State. It has an International Boundary with Benin Republic in Baruteen Local Government Area along the Northwestern part of the State. Despite its strategic location as the gateway between the southern and northern parts of the country and the presence of good transportation systems, there are few industries in Kwara State. To be continued
