Ado Ekiti - Economy

Economy

Tremendous development took place in the cultivation of economic crops, cultivation and collection of forest products such as kolanut (cola acuminata, Obi abata and cola nitida, gbanja) and oil palm produce, commerce and trade. Much of the impetus of all these came initially from Mr. Isaac Ifamuboni (later Babamuboni) and a number of early Christians from Lagos, Abeokuta and Ibadan. These men introduced the cultivation of cocoa, maize, brown cocoyam etc. to Ekiti. Wage earning labourers from parts of Ekiti who went to work in Ondo, Ijebu and Ife boosted the cultivation of these economic trees.

Ewi Aladesanmi II encouraged the cultivation of cash crops and establishment of trading and commercial enterprises among Ado citizenry. The Urhobo came into Ado communities in the early 1940s with their own mode of palm oil extraction. The Ebira came in large numbers in the 1940s and 1950s introducing the cultivation of their own specie of yams, cassava and beans. In the early 1950s, Igbemo, and Ado community started the cultivation of rice, the vogue spread to Iworoko in the 1960s and soon in the 1970s to other Ekiti communities such as Erio etc. These food crops boosted food production and contributed to the sustenance of the growing population of Ado communities, especially Ado-Ekiti, and by extension, other Ekiti and non-Ekiti communities.

The progress made in Western education, cultivation of food crop and of economic trees, as well as the establishment of commercial ventures brought great profit to Ado-Ekiti. In the early 1940s big time commercial firms (companies) such as U.A.C and in later years John Holt, U.T.C, C.F.A.O, established factories in the city. The Post and Telegraph now (NIPOST) established a station in this city in 1947/48 causing posting and collection of mails at the District Officer's office at Ayoba to cease. In 1958, pipe-borne water facility was provided making Ado-Ekiti the first town in present Ondo and Ekiti States to enjoy the facility. Two years later, ECN (now NEPA) extended electricity to the city. These facilities enhanced/increased commercial activities and brought immense socio-economic benefit and improved standard of life to the people. From the 1950s, commercial banks, at first the National Bank, the Union Bank, and in the 1960s and 1970s Co-operative Bank and United Bank for West Africa, opened their branch offices in Ado-Ekiti.