Dangote Industries Limited, parent company of the Dangote Group and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development this weekend signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish fully integrated rice production and processing operations nationwide. President Goodluck Jonathan who presided over the signing ceremony would see Dangote Industries investing $1 billion (about N165 billion) in response to the on-going reforms of the President’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) launched in 2011. Farmlands totalling 150,000 hectares have been acquired by Dangote in Edo, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kwara, and Niger states, for commercial production of rice paddy.
Dangote Group in statement on Sunday said It will also 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 240,000 metric tons. This project with such installed capacity will be the largest single investment ever made in rice production in Africa. The rice plant is estimated to produce 960,000 metric tons of mill rice, representing 46 per cent of rice imported into Nigeria.
Speaking at the event, President Jonathan commended Aliko Dangote, chief executive of Dangote Group for building a strong industrial base in Nigeria. He also said “the country is capable of producing rice that can feed the whole of West African sub-region”. Dangote however urged other Nigerian entrepreneurs to join the moving train now, rather than sit back and complain of not having a level-playing field and later on wave the flag of monopoly for successful entrepreneurs.
