August 1, 2014 by NAN

Dangote Industries Limited on Friday announced a $1bn (N165bn) investment for commercial rice farming and modern integrated rice mills to be run by the firm in Nigeria.

The President and Chairman, Dangote Group, Mr. Aliko Dangote, announced his firm’s investment plan at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Abuja.

Dangote, who led a delegation from his firm to the ministry, later proceeded to the Presidential Villa for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Government.

He told ministry officials and journalists that the move to invest in rice production was aimed at developing Nigeria’s economy through agriculture.

He said the investment would further boosts the Federal Government’s drive to attain food sufficiency in Nigeria, adding that in the next fours years Nigeria will become an exporter of rice.

Dangote said once his rice industry starts producing the staple food, the price of the locally produced rice “will be definitely cheaper than the imported ones and this will create room for a lot of investments in the sector.”

He said, “With rice as a major staple, we have placed total sufficiency in rice production as a major priority for our country and key value chain for our economy.

“Today’s signing ceremony marks a revolutionary tipping point by the Dangote Group to make Nigeria a net exporter of rice within the next few years as well as boosting inclusive wealth creation and employment generation.”

The Group’s boss stated that his firm had acquired farmlands in Edo, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kwara and Niger states totalling 150,000 hectares to be used for the commercial production of rice paddy.

He noted that his industry will establish two state of the art large scale rice mills each with a capacity to mill 120,000 metric tons of rice paddy, bringing total capacity to 240.000MT, with plans to double the figure in two years.

“With this installed capacity, the project will become the largest integrated rice mill in Africa,” Dangote said.

In his remarks, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, stated that the Dangote farms and mills were expected to significantly boost small-holder rice production in the regions through a nucleus and out-grower farming model.

This, he said, would directly transform livelihoods in rural Nigeria as the sites selected were rice-growing communities that will be supported by Dangote’s provision of agro-inputs, training and marketing linkages to improve community-farming.

He said employment opportunities for at least 8,000 Nigerians will be created by the massive investment.
Akinwumi said, “This investment by Dangote Industries is transformational for Nigeria and the rest of Africa. Nigeria has no business importing rice. Our goal is to become self-sufficient in rice and become a global powerhouse in food and agriculture markets.

“Through this billion dollar commitment, Aliko Dangote, Africa’s leading businessman, has clearly attested to the policies and approach that the Federal Government has undertaken to transform the nation’s agricultural sector.”

The minister assured the delegation that the Federal Government would stop the smuggling of foreign rice into Nigeria from neighbouring countries.

According to him, his ministry would ensure that no individual sabotages the drive to make Nigeria an exporter of rice.

“We will end smuggling because we cannot mortgage our future and I want to assure you that government is looking at this issue critically,” Adesina said.

http://www.punchng.com/news/fg-dangote-sign-mou-on-1bn-rice-project/

EdCure: Transformation agenda only for the benefit of the loyal rich.

What we need is improvement of the security conditions that will make farmers in the troubled states go back to their fields and food will not be an issue.

Sincere9gerian:
Meanwhile, the southern part of the country also churn out hundreds thousands of graduates yearly. GEJ is also the president of those graduates and he owes them jobs.

EdCure:
Yeah, but the jobs are still the exclusive preserve of the loyal elites.

The poor graduates are scammed, extorted and sent to their early deaths with phantom recruitment excercises.

You can see that the promises of Transformation and Fresh Air are the greatest of all lies ever peddled in 9ja.

EdCure: Sincere9gerian, Dangote is a hard working businessman, and i highly commend him for his success in creating jobs for the teeming unempleyed graduates. But pls, stop associating his success to GEJ's phoney Transformation Agenda. Its a disservice to the gentleman because it's all theatrics.

Sincere9gerian:
Meanwhile, the southern part of the country also churn out hundreds thousands of graduates yearly. GEJ is also the president of those graduates and he owes them jobs.

berem: Ifeanyichukwu,why must it be only Dangote monopolizing everything in Nigeria? When will other investors be giving the chance? Don't tell me no other person was interested in the same rice business.

Sincere9gerian:
What is stopping you from investing in rice production?

berem: Ifeanyichukwu,why must it be only Dangote monopolizing everything in Nigeria? When will other investors be giving the chance? Don't tell me no other person was interested in the same rice business.

oldenglish: The monopoly is bad but you did not lament when dangote and fashola corned some community land in Épe last year for a refinery.

EdCure: Sincere9gerian, government policies determine the level of investments, no dounts, but such policies predate GEJ's agenda.

Point i'm dwelling on is: You don't leave thousands of small (and large) scale farmers vulnerable to constant attacks, making them flee their main source of livelihood and contribution to the economy, only to sign an MoU with one super rich elite and shout TRANSFORMATION!

As a propagandist, havUEverTried to find out how this libellous Transformation Agenda affects the ppl?

berem: I did lament about it. Leaving everything to Dangote is not helping others who want to invest in the same sector too. Others should be given chance to invest too.

Omexonomy: edo state is having a very large rice paddy which have not been fully utilise[...]. Their is nothing wrong if dangote is taken advantage of such so long as the poor farmer chose to continue his farming without disturbance .

EdCure:

I understand that Nigeria's most fertile agricultural lands are in the troubled states. What are the architects and choirs of Transformation Agenda doing about this?

I don't sound to oppose Dangote, do i?

brownlord: Foolish government, very soon he wiil buy Nigeria,they should just tell us dangote sign MOU ahead of 2015 election.

How many sector will this man monopolise? Our stupid FG helping him to rip Nigerians since 1800. Cement is more expensive in Nigeria than any other west Africa country. Nonsense

EdCure: Sincere9gerian, government policies determine the level of investments, no dounts, but such policies predate GEJ's agenda.

Point i'm dwelling on is: You don't leave thousands of small (and large) scale farmers vulnerable to constant attacks, making them flee their main source of livelihood and contribution to the economy, only to sign an MoU with one super rich elite and shout TRANSFORMATION!

As a propagandist, havUEverTried to find out how this libellous Transformation Agenda affects the ppl?