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President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, has predicted that business mogul, Aliko Dangote, may become the largest exporter of rice globally in the next five years.

He said Africa must focus on agriculture to drive growth and create jobs on the continent.

The former minister of Agriculture in Nigeria who spoke at the Mo Ibrahim Forum in Morocco at the weekend recalled that when he (Adesina) was minister, Dangote was the biggest importer in the country at the time.

According to him, Dangote looked at the policies put in place then and changed his business model from being an importer to a local producer.

Recounting the role the richest man in Africa played on a day he also considered his happiest day as a minister in Nigeria, Adesina said, “Dangote decided to invest $300 million in producing and processing rice in Nigeria and later changed his mind from the amount to $1 billion.

“If they continue that policy, he would probably be the single largest producer of rice in the world in about four years. The reason why I was so excited about that is that agriculture is cool, agriculture is a business that pays in the long run”.

LEADERSHIP recalls that a tripartite agreement put together by Dangote Rice limited, a subsidiary of the Dangote Group, to create jobs for 16,000 outgrower rice farmers in Sokoto was recently signed with the Sokoto State government and rice growers in the country, after which he launched the rice outgrowers scheme in the state.

The chairman of Dangote Rice Limited said the company was moved to go into rice cultivation because of the genuine interest of the federal government to revive agriculture as the mainstay of the economy and reduce importation of foods that could be produced locally.

Dangote who lamented that Nigeria consumes 6.5 metric tonnes of rice which costs the nation over $2 billion annually noted, however, that it was heartening that government now has policy direction which encourages private sector’s active participation in agriculture.

He said, “In the next three years, we want to produce one million tons of quality rice and make it available and affordable to the people. We hope to do 150,000 per hectare and when we are done, Nigeria will not have anything to do with importation of rice.

“Dangote Rice outgrowers scheme is committed to creating significant number of jobs, increasing the incomes of small holders farmers and ensuring food security in the country by providing high quality seeds, fertilizers and agro-chemicals as well as technical assistance on best agricultural practice to farmers.

“This Scheme will help to diversify the economy, alleviate poverty and reduce the nation’s import bill. The scheme has been designed as a one stop solution for the rice value chain”.
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