Nigeria to invest $1.2bn in rice mills, cassava plants

Nigeria is planning to construct 100 rice mills and 18 cassava flour processing plants with an investment of NGN189.6bn ($1.2bn), to boost production and improve the country’s value chain.

Private equity investors from China, specifically the China Development Fund, plan to bear 50% of the costs of the private-sector driven project, while the Nigerian government will invest NGN853.2m ($514m).

The Federal Government’s transformation action plan for agriculture aims to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice production by 2015, by milling 2.1 million metric tonnes of rice, which are currently being imported.

Through the programme, the country also seeks to replace 40% of the wheat flour used in bread with cassava flour, and create an effective value chain for cassava, of which Nigeria is the worldwide leading producer.

The construction of the rice mills will be taken up by Chinese companies, conducted in a sequential manner and are expected to be completed over the next 24 months.

The ministry has also completed an arrangement with the Nigeria’s Bank of Industry (BOI), which is responsible for assisting local and foreign entrepreneurs in establishing new industries, to provide financing for the private sector to acquire the rice mills.

Nigeria minister of agriculture Akinwunmi Adesina told BusinessDay Online that the ministry had been on a mission to China in order to ensure access to low interest rate, long-time funding to private sector to acquire the mills.

The ministry worked on environmental impact assessments, and tried to identify the ideal sites for locating the plants, both for the rice mills and the cassava flour plants, Adesina added.

For the cassava project, the ministry has appointed a group of nutritionists, food processors, flour millers and bakers to standardise the recipe for the manufacture of the nation’s evolving cassava bread.

Image: Nigeria currently imports 2.1 million metric tonnes of rice. Photo: Keith Weller