The President, African Development Bank, Mr. Akinwumi Adesina, says Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, will become the largest exporter of rice in the world by 2021.
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| Aliko Dangote |
Adesina said this at the Mo Ibrahim Forum in Morocco over the weekend.
He said Africa should focus on agriculture to drive growth and employment on the continent.
Adesina recalled that during his tenure as Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture, Dangote decided to invest in local production of rice due to government’s import substitution policies.
Adesina said that Dangote initially planned a 300 million-dollar investment in production and processing of rice in Nigeria but later changed it to one billion dollars three months after.
“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 and agriculture pays,” Adesina said.
Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman, Dangote Ltd, said he ventured into rice cultivation because of government’s interest to revive agriculture as the mainstay of the economy and reduce importation of food that could be produced locally.
He lamented that Nigeria consumes 6.5 million Metric tonnes of rice which costs the nation over two billion dollars annually and commended government’s policy that encourages private sector’s active participation in agriculture.
“In the next three years, we want to produce one million tonnes of quality rice, make it available and affordable to the people.
“We hope to do 150,000 hectares and when we are done, Nigeria will not have anything to do with importation of rice,” Dangote said.
- The Punch
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