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Tag: rice

  • Rice production: Dangote inaugurates multi billion naira processing plant in Jigawa

    …Promises to end rice importation

    The Dangote Rice Outgrower Scheme in Jigawa State reached a turning point yesterday 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, 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, Kaugama local government area, 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

    Recalling 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, the business mogul said with the new ultra modern mill enough paddy rice will 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, while in the second phase, other mills will be built in Nasarawa, Kogi, and other states.

    Said he: When these planned six mills come fully on stream, we will achieve a capacity of seven hundred thousand metric tons per annum of Par boiled 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, stop importation Nduka save the nation foreign exchange ”

    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 comes with it.”

    In his opening remarks, the Dangote Group Executive Director, Devakumar Edwin explained that the Dangote Rice team has been involved in scaling up the outgrower operations to a least 5,000 hectares this season and this will very soon increase and grow to over 15,000 hectares cultivated per cycle or season to fully optimise operations.

    He said the establishment of a Multi-billion Naira state-of-the-art integrated rice processing facility to process at least 260 metric tons of rice paddy per day grown which is produced from thousands of local rice out growers within Jigawa state is a giant step forward and expresses his company’s confidence and faith in local farmers to continuously stand with Dangote to make this project a success.

    Located on 25 hectares site in Hadin, Edwin noted that the mill is earmarked to begin operations in the last quarter of 2018. “During the construction phase and when it becomes fully operational, hundreds of employment opportunities will be created, knowledge transference and skills developed among our teeming youthful population thereby boosting local economy.”

    According to him, “the Jigawa famers are in for a good times as the 125, 000 metric tons of paddy rice that this plant requires for processing will be brought from the farmers of Jigawa for an estimated purchase price of N14 billion per annum. This is a huge benefit for the farmers in Jigawa. This mill will be producing high quality parboiled rice that competes with the best in the world this is in-line with our continuous aim to touch the lives of millions who believe in the Dangote brand.

    “Jigawa State is endowed and blessed with vast fertile land, water resources, climate and progressive people, as well as one of the fastest growing agricultural destinations in Nigeria, was identified as an ideal location for us to set up our first facility in Nigeria. This obviously reinforces our commitment to supporting the efforts of the present administration in developing a robust agro-industry in Nigeria.

    “We made commitment to Nigerians that we will produce 1 million metric ton of quality par boiled rice. Since then we have embarked on several initiatives towards achieving this objective with support and collaboration from state and federal government agencies, ministries and departments, non-governmental organisations, community based organisations, traditional and financial institutions, etc., we continue to pioneer new approaches to empowering our primary stakeholders and our farmers, through the Dangote outgrower program 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.”

    Jigawa State governor, Alhaji 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 Dang9te rice operate smoothly to the satisfaction of .all parties in the state

  • Pandemonium as Customs officers Kill rice smuggler in Lagos

    There was pandemonium in Abule Egba area of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria on Wednesday morning following the killing of a rice smuggler by suspected Customs officers.

    It was learnt that customs officers had chased the rice smuggler to Abule Egba in the early hours of Wednesday before shooting him dead and ran away.

    Police source said the body of the deceased was seen lying on the ground this morning while bags of rice that were smuggled were seen inside the danfo bus, with registration number Lagos/RKY/1953506.

    Stains of blood was seen on the body of the bus and some bags of rice.

    Irate youths burnt tyres and blocked the express road in protest over the killing and the refusal of the police in the area that the dead body should not be evacuated from the scene further fuelled the crisis.

    Officials of the Rapid Response Squad, RRS and taskforce officials were quickly drafted to the area to quell the riot while Armoured Personnel Carrier, APC was also deployed.

    As at this morning, motorists avoided the Abule Egba axis, while those who dared, were forced to turn back as hoodlums were on rampage.

    People were seen running helter and skelter to avoid being caught in the crisis.

  • [Photos] Vehicles, bags of rice destroyed as fire guts Customs warehouse in Lagos

    [Photos] Vehicles, bags of rice destroyed as fire guts Customs warehouse in Lagos

    A warehouse belonging to the Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Operations Unit, Zone A was on Thursday gutted by fire in Lagos.

    The warehouse which was filled with seized vehicles and foreign parboiled rice was destroyed by the fire which occurred about noon.

    According to an eyewitness, the fire razed substantial part of the warehouse destroying six trucks, 15 cars/vans and a fully loaded truck with seized foreign parboiled rice.

    The eyewitness also disclosed that goods worth several millions of naira were destroyed in the inferno.

    But speaking to newsmen, the Deputy Head, Lagos State Fire Service, Rasaki Musibau, said the fire started from a burst cylinder stored under one of the burnt vehicles.

    Details later…

  • Rice, beans importation into Nigeria reduce by over 90% – Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday in Abuja reiterated federal government’s determination to continually review and strengthen ongoing reforms in the agriculture sector “until Nigeria regains its pride of place as food exporting country.”

    The president said this when he received a delegation of All Progressives Congress, APC, from Kebbi State, led by the state governor, Atiku Bagudu, in the Presidential Villa.

    He added that the country’s rice import bill had dropped significantly, noting, however, that “beyond self-sufficiency, Nigeria must strive to become net exporter of food commodities.

    “We are not doing badly in the agriculture sector: Nigerians and indeed the world, are beginning to appreciate our efforts. We will work harder until we start exporting food.

    “We are happy that rice and beans importation into the country have gone down by over 90 per cent, and everyone can see how productive states like Kebbi turned out to be and states like Lagos, Ogun and Ebonyi are following the example.”

    The president said Kaduna, Katsina, Kano and Sokoto states had already reported remarkable turn-around in the agriculture sector, with more youths taking interest in entrepreneurship.

    Mr. Buhari, who disagreed with the astronomical food import bill presented by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from the inception of the administration, pointed out that it was later discovered to be “fraudulent practices’’ by some elite to deplete the foreign reserves.

    He said “when I was told that the CBN had no savings after the windfall of selling oil for more than 100 dollars per barrel for many years and production was 2.1 billion barrels per day, I did not believe them.

    “I did not believe them because majority of Nigerians cannot afford imported food; they rely on what is locally grown. It turned out that 50 per cent of the export bills were fraudulent, courtesy of the Nigerian elite.

    “Unfortunately, we will not know all that happened because the elite worked in collusion with institutions in developed countries like insurance firms, shipping companies and other financial outfits, to perpetuate the fraud.”

    On security, President Buhari said the return of farmers to their farm lands in the North East, with glaring results of high yields, was a testimony to the relative peace that had been achieved.

    He assured that more would be done to check the mayhem of suicide attacks.

    The president said his administration would put in more effort to reposition the education and health sectors to compete with other global institutions.

    While introducing the delegation, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, commended government’s policies toward reviving the agriculture sector.

    The Kebbi Governor, Atiku Bagudu, said “the state government and the APC family was pleased with the performance of the federal government in securing the country, reviving the economy and fighting corruption.”

    Mr. Bagudu and members of the delegation, which included former Governor of the state, Usman Dakingari and other former PDP stalwarts, prayed for the quick recovery of the president’s son, Yusuf.

    Yusuf Buhari was involved in a bike accident earlier this week.

    NAN

     

  • CBN, RIFAN to crash price of rice soon

    The National President, Rice Farmers Association, Alhaji Aminu Goronyo, has assured Nigerians that the market prices of locally produced rice will soon crash.

    Goronyo said in Abuja on Wednesday that the price of a 50kg-bag of locally produced rice would plummet from N18,000 to between N6,500 and N7000 by April 2018.

    He said that the price-reduction plans would be achieved under a joint programme of RIFAN and the Anchor Borrowers Programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria, which would be launched in Abuja on Jan. 13, 2018.

    Goronyo said that 12 million rice farmers in the country would benefit from the one-year partnership, adding, however, that 300,000 rice farmers from 20 states would be supported at the beginning of the programme in January.

    He said that under the new initiative, the CBN had modified the programme to facilitate its direct relations with RIFAN so as to ensure timely disbursement and full repayment of loans, unlike what obtained in the past.

    He said that the new initiative would double the achievements of the earlier edition of ABP, which was launched on Nov. 17, 2015 in Kebbi, with a target to produce additional 2.5 million tonnes of paddy rice.

    He said that in 2015, Nigerians spent not less than N1bn daily on rice consumption, adding that while the spending had reduced drastically, rice consumption had increased significantly because of the increase in local production of rice.

    Goronyo said that the available statistics indicated that the rice consumption rate in the country now had increased from 7.9 million tonnes to over 8 million tonnes, while the volume of rice production had increased from 5.8 million tonnes to 6.9 million tonnes per annum.

    He, however, noted that several efforts had been put in place to cut down the price of rice, adding that some of the efforts included collaborations with Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI) and other African countries to boost rice production and exports in Africa.

    Goronyo stressed that rice prices would further drop, as there were currently bumper harvests in rice farms across the country, while RIFAN was collaborating with rice millers on the pricing of the commodity.

    Besides, the RIFAN president said that RIFAN had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Nigeria Customs Service on how to contain rice smuggling into the country through the land borders.

    Goronyo said that the efforts being put in place and the current economic situation in the country had made it somewhat difficult for people to import rice into the country and make profit.

    “The landing cost of a 50kg.-bag of imported rice is now N19, 500; then, how much should the 50 kg.-bag of rice be sold?

    “The smuggled rice that comes into Nigeria is just five per cent of what we consume, and the rice comes in through the informal sector,’’ he said.

    The ABP, which was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on Nov. 17, 2015, is aimed at creating linkages between companies involved in rice processing.

  • Anambra to suspend production, sale of unregistered rice – NAFDAC

    The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has called on the Anambra Government to suspend production and sale of all unregistered rice labelled “Anambra Rice’’.

    Mrs Christiana Essenwa, a Deputy Director of NAFDAC, made the call on Monday during a visit to the state Ministry of Agriculture in Awka.

    Essenwa said that the call became imperative following a petition forwarded to NAFDAC by Stine Industries, Nnewi, over the alleged counterfeiting and illegal use of the trade mark by the state government.

    “Sometime this year, a petitioner, Stine Industries, came to our office with a petition that their products were being re-packaged illegally by some rice processors.

    “Stine Industries came to NAFDAC with a Certificate of Incorporation and the trade mark in 2016 for NAFDAC registration number but the state government surfaced with the same trade mark in 2017.

    “There is no way the Ministry of Commerce and Industry can give one trade mark to two individuals or companies.

    “We went on a raid and discovered that in truth, there were products branded ‘Anambra Rice’ but with no NAFDAC registration number,” she said.

    The deputy director stressed that there were a lot of dangers in consuming unregistered food items, including rice.

    According to her, rice has the tendency of harbouring aflatoxin and heavy metals called arsenic, which can cause cancer and kidney diseases.

    “The Federal Government is pleased with efforts to promote the local industry but at the same time, it is concerned with the health of the people.

    “The idea here is not to witch-hunt the rice processors or to throw them out of business but our aim is solely to protect the consumers,” she said.

    Essenwa said that the suspension was aimed at enabling the state government and Stine Industries to resolve their differences, while maintaining good manufacturing policies for food production in the country.

    Responding, Mr Leo Imoka, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, appealed to the agency to give more time to the two parties resolve their differences.

    He said that the state government was taking steps to acquire appropriate marketing authorisation for its rice production concerns.

    He said that the state government had registered the trade mark with the Federal Ministry of Trade, Investment and Industry for the production of five commodities, including cassava, honey and rice.

    “This is because we heard that the Federal Government wanted to ban rice and that states should help in the mass production of rice, knowing the disadvantages of importing rice.

    “The state government keyed into all off-taker programmes for rice production in the country, which has attracted a lot of rice farmers, processors and marketers and led to an increase in rice production.

    “In order not to make the rice affordable to our citizens, we opened with the brand name `Anambra Rice’ to differentiate our rice from that of other rice producers until we are able to register under an umbrella with NAFDAC.’’

    Imoka said that an inter-ministerial committee was set up by the government to accredit rice producers and processors so as to ensure that only those with standard production environment were allowed to use the brand name.

  • Beware of poisonous rice smuggled into the country, FG warns Nigerians

    Federal Government on Thursday declared that all foreign brands of rice in the country at the moment were smuggled, adding that some of them were poisonous.

    According to the government, recent tests conducted by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that most imported rice and poultry products were poisonous, as the commodities had been stored for several months before being shipped to Nigeria and neighbouring countries.

    It also stated that the different varieties of rice currently consumed in Nigeria were smuggled based on submissions by the Consumer Protection Council that it had not seen any ‘Form M’ for rice importation since the beginning of this year.

    An ‘e-Form M’, as it is popularly called, is a mandatory documentation process put in place by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria to monitor goods that are imported into the country as well as enable collection of import duties where applicable.

    Speaking in Abuja at a stakeholders’ engagement programme on how to stop the importation and smuggling of frozen poultry and rice into the country, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, noted that it was the duty of the government to protect citizens against any form of harm.

    He stated, “For imported rice, we don’t know how long it had been in their (exporters) silos. Recently, one country decided to bring in a shipload of rice into Nigeria so that we can use it to support the IDPs (Internationally Displaced Persons) in the North-East, but when we subjected the rice to a test, we discovered that the rice was actually poisonous.

    “This means that most imported rice have been in silos for 10 to 15 years and have no nutritional value. So what we have told them is that anybody who wants to support the IDPs or any other person in Nigeria should please use our local rice. The argument is that local rice is more expensive, but we say even if it means buying half bags, do it.

    “It is better for us to eat a smaller quantity of nutritious rice than for us to take poisonous shiploads of rice. Also, we discovered that chemicals used for smuggled poultry products are the ones used for embalming corpses. So what we want Nigerians to know is that anybody who eats smuggled poultry products is actually embalming himself while still alive.”

    Lokpobiri told participants at the event, including operators of superstores and international hotels, among others, that enforcement officers from agencies of the Federal Government would start visiting their outlets to ensure that smuggled and illegally imported products were not sold to Nigerians.

  • Yuletide: LASG commences sale of LAKE rice

    The Lagos State Government on Thursday said a large number of bags of LAKE Rice had been approved for sale.

    The Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Oluwatoyin Suarau, explained in Ikeja that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, who facilitated the availability of the product of partnership between Lagos and Kebbi states, had ordered a fair distribution of the rice across the state.

    Suarau said, “The rice will be made available at the various accredited centres in the state, including Farm Service Centre, Odogunyan-Ikorodu; Farmers’ Mart, Surulere; Agric Input Supply Authority, Ojo; and Farm Service Centre, Temu-Epe.”

    The commissioner noted that Lake Rice was part of government’s drive to attain food sufficiency, adding that self-sufficiency was being given priority attention in the state.

  • Bello sent thugs, stopped me from donating 1260 bags of rice to civil servants – Melaye

    Senator Dino Melaye (APC-Kogi West) has accused Governor Yahaya Bello of sending thugs to stop him from sharing the bags of rice and other relief materials donated to civil servants in the state.

    The bags of rice, numbering 1260, were donated by some senators to aid civil servants in Kogi state who have reportedly not being paid for 22 months.

    In a series of tweets on Friday, Melaye said: ”GYB has mobilized his thugs backed by his paid policemen to barricade the entry to Lokoja from Abuja with the intention of attacking Sen Dino Melaye and the rice meant for the suffering kogi civil servants.

    ”10 million was then released to thugs to stop the rice from coming into lokoja and to also disparage SDM.

    ”Hahahaha Double wahala for dead body and the owner of dead body. Olodo governor.”

  • Concerned senators donate 1,300 bags of rice to unpaid Kogi workers

    Concerned senators donate 1,300 bags of rice to unpaid Kogi workers

    Members of the Senate have donated 1,280 bags of rice as of Wednesday to Kogi State Government workers owed salaries.

    This was made know by lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Senator Dino Melaye, at a press briefing on Wednesday, where said he was spearheading donation of relief materials to Kogi workers over unpaid salaries.

    Melaye said, “Today, I drew the attention of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the plight of civil servants in my native Kogi State following the recent disturbing reports of deaths by suicide and inability to pay medical bills by some workers.

    “I’m happy to report to you that my colleagues in the Senate have immediately responded by donating bags of rice and other essential items to the workers in order to cushion the biting effects of non-payment of their salaries by the Kogi State government.

    “The donation, which amounted to 1,280 bags of rice as of today, and others that will follow later, will be handed over to the Kogi State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress for onward distribution to the most vulnerable workers who need immediate assistance.”