The rice sector has attracted N256bn ($1.6bn) worth of investments in the last three years, the Federal Government has said.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, disclosed during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Bank of Industry to build rice and cassava mills across the country.

He said, “Within a three-year period, we have been able to attract $1.6bn of investment into the rice sector. The largest one being Aliko Dangote that has put up in over N165bn, which is $1bn into commercial rice production and also commercial rice milling.

“I have no doubt that within three years, Nigeria will be exporting rice just like Thailand and India, and that is exactly the way it should be. However, we notice that as we have been producing a lot of rice, we don’t have enough mills to process the rice.”

Adesina said the country lacked integrated rice mills to process the locally produced rice to global standards.

He said it was important for Nigeria to close the milling gap, and to achieve this, the country had to build integrated rice mills.

He noted that the MoU was to facilitate the building of 10 rice mills and six cassava processing mills.

The minister said, “The 10 integrated rice mills will each have the capacity of 36,000 metric tonnes, which means they all will be a total of 360,000 metric tonnes. So, this is a huge investment. The rice mills are going to be located in Kebbi, Zamara, Kaduna, Kano, Benue, Kogi, Bayelsa, Bauchi, Ogun and Anambra states.

“Government has no part in this venture. The role of the government is to facilitate access to finance for private sector investors to invest in these mills and run them as private sector-driven operation.”

The Managing Director/Chief Executive, BoI, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, said, “We are now at the critical stage where there is a need for effective processing of the agricultural produce. The MoU will address the modalities to ensure that these 16 companies materialise in the next few months.

“It is hoped that by the time the companies are operational, the amount of rice being imported will be significantly reduced if not completely eliminated.”

He stated that the MoU would allow for the release of loans to investors and noted that the credit would come with an interest of five per cent.

Olaoluwa said the repayment period would be 10 years with three years moratorium.

In another development, the Federal Government signed another MoU with Nigeria Breweries Plc for the development and commercialisation of hybrid sorghum as part of its sustainability programme.

The government said that despite Nigeria being the largest producer of food sorghum in the world, the country had yet to reap the benefits of using it for the production of high energy food as it was done in other countries.

Adesina said his ministry reached out to 96,000 sorghum farmers in 2013 with improved inputs, seeds and fertilizers in order to enhance the development of the value chain.

http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/rice-sector-attracts-n256bn-investments-fg/

Where are the APCs pay per post to come and tell us another thing as it have allways been their wont and lot?
These shows that some Yoruba people like Dr. Adeshina can still make things work for the betterment of nigeria. Not those APC thieves masqurading as progresivess so as to plunder our wealth.
Since we dont have any controll over the fallen oil price methink we have controll over our agriculture which can help us to earn a lot to boost our national income.