The Dangote Rice Outgrower Scheme in Jigawa State reached a turning point on Thursday when the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote laid a foundation stone for the construction of a multi-billion Naira rice processing mill in Hadin, Kaugama local government area of Jigawa state.
The mill with capacity to process 16 metric tons of paddy rice per hour, when completed will, in a year, process paddy rice worth N14 billion bought directly from the famers in Jigawa at market rate.
Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony in Hadin, Mr Dangote said the commencement of the construction of the integrated rice processing plant was the culmination of series of events which began with the signing of a $1billion agreement with the federal government for the integrated rice production in Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Niger and Jigawa.
“We have continued to pioneer new approaches to empowering our primary stakeholders and our farmers, through the Dangote outgrowers programme thereby creating thousands of jobs, increasing incomes poverty reduction in rural communities by providing high quality agro-inputs, technical support and secured market for farmers.
“Also, creating access to finance, mechanization and irrigation services so as to enhance agricultural productivity”, he stated.
Recall that the Dangote Rice limited started the outgrowers scheme in 2016 with thousands of hectares of land in Hadejia, Jigawa state, creating over 10,000 jobs (direct and indirect) to farmers.
Mr Dangote, therefore, said with the new ultra-modern mill, enough paddy rice would be grown and harvested for processing.
According to him, the mill which will take only months for installation and commissioning is the first in the series of five other mills coming up in Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi and Niger States in the first phase.
He said that in the second phase, other mills will be built in Nasarawa, Kogi, and other states.
“When these planned six mills come fully on stream, we will achieve a capacity of seven hundred thousand metric tons per annum of Parboiled rice, which will make Dangote Rice the largest rice producer in Africa and will make a bold step in making Nigeria self-sufficient in Rice production and save the nation foreign exchange,” he said.
Mr Dangote stated further that towards co-creating value for all stakeholders, the company has engaged about 20,000 out growers who are expected to produce an average of 180,000 tons of paddy rice on about 30,000 hectares of land.
“We are focused on engaging in the region of 300,000 farmers in the next 12 months when our rice mills are all functional and we achieve steady state.
“We will continue to launch massive agricultural projects across the country in rice and dairy farming. Our push for backward integration in providing our own raw materials on a massive scale has led to the planned investment of $4.6 billion over the next three years in sugar, rice and dairy production alone. That will eliminate the country’s reliance on imported materials, and the foreign exchange headaches that come with it.”
In his remark, the Jigawa State governor, Abubakar Badaru, expressed delight at the stage of the Dangote Rice project in the state saying it was in line with the vision of the Invest Jigawa, an organ set up to accelerate investments in the state.
He said Jigawa is one of the states reputed to be on top on ease of doing business in Nigeria, saying the Dangote Rice presence in the state is a pointer to the fact.
He added that the state is also in the forefront of the diversification efforts of the federal government from oil to non-oil ventures especially agriculture.
He promised that the state will be willing to do whatever it will take to ensure the Dangote rice operate smoothly to the satisfaction of .all parties in the state.