Dangote will be the world’s largest producer of rice in 4 years – Adesina

by Dolapo Adelana

The President of the African Development Bank, AfDB, Akinwumi Adesina, has said Afica’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, may become the largest exporter of rice in the world by 2021.

Adesina made the disclosure over the weeked in Morocco while speaking at the Mo Ibrahim Forum.

“I remember when I was minister of Agriculture in Nigeria. Aliko Dangote was there, and he was our biggest importer at the time, and he and I used to have all the time to dialogue,” Mr. Adesina said.

[Read Also:] Dangote moves to crash the price of rice in Nigeria

“One day, I was in my office, about 10 O’clock, Aliko walks in, Ngozi was minister of finance. Aliko bangs on my door and said ‘minister I came to see you’, and I said ‘what are we going to disagree on this time?’

“He said no, I have actually looked at the policies, and the policies you put in place for import substitution are very right policies. So, I have changed my business model from being an importer to being a local producer.”

Mr. Adesina narrated the role Mr. Dangote played in his happiest day as a minister in Nigeria.

“I said what exactly are you going to do. He said I will put in $300 million into producing and processing rice in Nigeria. I said yippee! I went home, I told my wife, my best day as minister,” he said.

[Read Also:] Dangote makes Africa’s largest single investment in rice production

“He comes back three months after that, he says I have changed my mind, I said ‘what in the world happened?’ He said no, I have changed my mind from $300 million to a billion dollars.

“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…agriculture pays.”

 

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail