LAGOS Feb 13 (Reuters) - Dangote Group,
controlled by Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote, plans to launch a rice
mill with a farm scheme in Nigeria to tap growing demand for paddy in
Africa's biggest economy, the company said on Monday.
Rice demand
in Nigeria hit 6.3 million metric tonnes (MT) in 2015, with 2.3 million
metric tonnes produced at home, leaving the country reliant on imports,
according to the agriculture ministry.
Dangote Group subsidiary
Dangote Rice Ltd will launch a pilot project starting with 500 hectares
of farmland by Gonroyo Dam, Nigeria's second-largest dam, located in the
northern state of Sokoto.
The multi-million-dollar project will
be expanded to cover a land area of 25,000 hectares across three sites
in northern Nigeria by the end of the year, the firm said.
"By
year-end 2017, Dangote Rice plans to produce 225,000 MT of parboiled,
milled white rice. This will allow us to satisfy 4 percent of the total
market demand within one year," the company said in a statement.
"Our
model can then be successfully scaled to produce 1,000,000 MT of milled
rice in order to satisfy 16 percent of the domestic market demand for
rice over the next five years."
Dangote Group has grown
aggressively, venturing into cement , food manufacturing, oil, gas and
real estate. Last month, the group launched a $100 million truck
assembly plant to tap a projected rise in demand for transport as the
government boosts agriculture and farmers need to move goods across the
vast country.
Dangote Rice said it would partner with
smallholders and contract farmers to grow paddy rice for milling. It
will offer inputs to farmers while the smallholders provide land and
labour.
At harvest, Dangote will recoup input costs and buy the paddy rice from farmers for processing at market price.
The
25,000-hectare land will be cultivated by nearly 50,000 farmers,
organised into groups. Dangote will engage with the groups to sign
contracts with each farmer.
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