Owner of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, plans to invest a total of $4.6bn for the production of sugar, rice, and dairy in the next three years.
This is so that companies can easily expand and deal with the shortage of dollars needed to import raw materials.
The Executive Director of Dangote’s Industries, Edwin Devakumar, in an interview with Bloomberg, disclosed that the company plans to start producing 1.5 million tonnes of sugar and 100,000 tonnes of rice by the year 2020 and 500 million litres of milk by 2019, breeding 50,000 cows.
Investment Opportunities in Rice Production in Nigeria
According to him, the investment would focus on local production of sugar, rice, tomatoes and oil palm, intended to boost the economy through home-grown agricultural operations.
He further went to say that the implication of the lack of foreign exchange is that companies need to invest in local agriculture to help meet the demand for food from Nigeria’s population of more than 180 million.
Hence, the reason why the company is investing heavily in agriculture to mitigate the hardship occasioned by the scarcity of foreign exchange.
He asserted that five plants that would be in charge of sugar milling and another 10 rice processing companies from Switzerland have all been ordered to set up in the Northern part of the country.
Dangote Rice Mill to Generate 90 Billion Annually
While speaking at the 6th edition of the 2017 Agrik Expo and NABG Conference in Abuja, Dangote said: “Agriculture cannot thrive in this country except there is a better partnership and collaboration between the private and public sector”.
He urged the government to embrace partnership with private bodies in order to actualize its objective of agricultural prosperity.
The Dangote Group, a Nigerian multinational industrial conglomerate and one of the most diversified business conglomerates in Africa, is founded by Aliko Dangote.
