by Kolapo Olapoju

Going by the comments of Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the rice sector has attracted N256 billion worth of investments in the last three years.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development made this known during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Bank of Industry to facilitate the building of 10 rice mills and six cassava processing mills.

He said, “Within a three-year period, we have been able to attract $1.6 billion of investment into the rice sector. The largest one being Aliko Dangote that has put up in over N165 billion, which is $1 billion 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.”

Furthermore, Adesina stated that Nigeria lacked integrated rice mills to process the locally produced rice to global standards, adding that it was important for the country to close the milling gap, and to achieve this, integrated rice mills had to be built.

The minister added, “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.”

Meanwhile, the Managing Director of Bank of Industry, Rasheed Olaoluwa, who was also present at the MOU signing, stated that it was imperative for the arrangement to be effected, in order to eliminate rice importation in the country.

“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.”

Olaoluwa revealed 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, while adding that the repayment period would be 10 years with three years moratorium.

Kolapo Olapoju