Determined to create job opportunities and industrialize Nigeria, the Dangote Group on Tuesday announced that it was scaling up its investment in the agricultural sector.
Fielding questions from newsmen on the sideline of the ongoing 2nd edition of the Agribusiness Summit in Abuja, the Group Executive Director, Strategy, Capital Project and Portfolio Development, Devakumar Edwin, said the new investments are significant and timely given the current rate of unemployment in the country.
According to him, agriculture employs 37 percent of the population, adding that this is against the backdrop of 23 percent unemployment rate in the country.
He said going forward, his company is upping its investment in rice, tomato paste, sugar and dairy products.
He said, presently, the Dangote Group is constructing state-of-the-art storage silos, and as well carrying out parboiling, rice milling, polishing, sorting and parking units for a total capacity of one million tons of paddy in the country.
Mr Edwin said there is an ongoing investment in 15,000 hectares to produce and process tomato paste of 150,000 tons per year, adding that the current import is 0.5million tons per year.
He said his conglomerate was equally investing in 40,000 hectares to produce sugar, just as he hinted about the ongoing construction of a 3million tons fertilizer plant.
He said part of the company’s plans also included investment in dairy products and oil seeds.
With adequate arable land and availability of water, he expressed optimism that Nigeria has all it takes to grow the agricultural sector.
According to him, the time is rife to put the agricultural sector in the front burner, more so that Nigeria’s ever-growing population is projected to hit 440million by the year 2050.
He, therefore, called on Nigerians to support the agricultural drive by the Dangote Group which is in line with government policy and the yearnings of the people.
