Nigeria’s foremost conglomerate, Dangote Industries Ltd is to invest $300
million (N50 billion) in rice production to make the country, self
sufficient in rice production and also stop importation of the product
into the country.
The President of the Group, Aliko Dangote last week at the World Economic
Forum (WEF), Davos Switzerland said his Group’s planned investment in the
agriculture sector will create additional 180,000 jobs in the economy.
Explaining his Group’s foray into agriculture, Dangote said. “If I dreamt
five years ago that I would invest in Agriculture, I will write it off as
bad dream or nightmare but today, we’re investing $2.3 billion in
Agriculture, $2 billion in sugar, and $300 million in rice. In Nigeria, we
have one of the most attractive investment policies through framework that
the government has put in place to help businesses succeed.”
It is expected that the planned investment will effectively enable the
country become self-sufficient in food production as it did in cement
sector. Dangote Group ended cement importation with three plants located
at Obajana, Gboko and Ibese meeting domestic demand for cement. The Group
through massive investment in sugar cultivation as part of the national
sugar master plan will put Nigeria on the world sugar map and end
importation of raw sugar.
Dangote Sugar, a subsidiary of the Group is a front line player in the
sugar backward integration policy. The company is working towards
producing One million tons of white sugar by 2015, cultivating 100,000
hectares in about six states of Sokoto, Kebbi, Jigawa, Taraba, Kogi and
Kwara State.
Also, the investment in rice cultivation will boost local production and
in years to come end the nation’s dependence on imported rice. The Group
is investing heavily in agricultural sector principally because it is
motivated by the desire to create jobs, empower Nigerians, and owing to a
friendlier agricultural policy of the federal government. Reputed to be
the single largest private sector employer of labour in Nigeria, the Group
is currently investing in fertilizer plant in order to boost
agriculture.