ABUJA – The Federal Government and Dangote Industries Ltd. have signed an agreement for the investment of one billion dollars in an integrated rice project in Kebbi, Niger, Jigawa, Edo, and Kwara states.
The President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, said during the agreement signing ceremony in Abuja on Friday that government had provided the environment conducive for such a huge investment.
He added that through its new rice policy as entrenched in the Agricultural Transformation Agenda, the Federal Government had demonstrated adequate support for such investment.
“What we are trying to do is to actually join hands with the ministry; apart from making Nigeria self-sufficient in rice, it’s also to make sure that Nigeria exports rice because we have no reason not to export rice.
“It will be very shameful for the biggest economy in Africa not to be self-sufficient in what we consume; we are going to eliminate importation of food items.
“There is no comparison to the impact it will make on society; we will try to make sure that we have out growers.
“We will give them the seedlings, training, and the fertiliser, and then we will guarantee to buy their paddy and process.
“Right now there is a policy of government backing what they have said; so I think that has actually helped to make sure that we can invest a billion dollars.
“We will be able to generate hundreds of thousands of jobs.
“Even through the value chain, they will be able to also demonstrate and remove the fear that agriculture is a poor man’s business; it’s not,“ he said.
Dangote urged other entrepreneurs to invest in the agricultural sector saying that effective measures had been put in place by the government to safeguard their investments.
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He said that his company had grown from an importer of cement to a net exporter of cement through investment in the Nigerian cement industry, thereby ensuring self-sufficiency for Nigeria.
The entrepreneur said that Nigeria produced 1.8 million tons of cement before 2004, but that his company’s investment in the sector increased production to 28 million tons by 2014.
He disclosed that nine billion tons of cement would be added to the sector in August and thus increase output to 37 million tons.
He explained that investment in rice production was much cheaper than that of cement.
Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, in his remarks commended the company for the huge investment and called for the involvement of more indigenous companies in the production and processing of rice. “Today with his one billion dollars investment in rice, he is clearly on the part of making Nigeria not only self-sufficient in rice, but we will become a net exporter in rice in about three to four years.
“One billion dollars investment in an integrated set of farms – that is N165 billion; and what that will really do for us is very transformative.
“This investment will cover 150,000 hectares accumulated across five states; the Dangote Group and the ministry – we are very mindful of the importance of small-holder farmers.
“This single investment that Alhaji Dangote is making will allow us to have an additional 1.4 million tons of rice produced annually on top of what we are already doing.
“That means, we will be producing by 2017, 2018 from his own investment – a total of 960,000 tons of milled rice; that will be 46 per cent of all the total amount of rice that we are currently importing today,“ the minister said.
Adesina said that the projection that the Nigerian population would reach 200 million in the near future, made it necessary for the Nigerian market to become more independent through food production and mechanised farming. (NAN)
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