The Dangote Group has announced plans to invest $1bn in rice cultivation in five states to boost food self-sufficiency in the country.
Speaking at the 2017 Gateway Trade Fair, which held in Abeokuta, Ogun state, a director of the Dangote Group, Tunde Mabogunje, said: “We have been contributing our quota to the growth and development of the Nigerian economy. Towards aiding agriculture, we are building a fertilizer plant in the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos state.
“When completed, farmers will have regular access to fertilizer for their farming activities. The delays and disruptions experienced in waiting for imported fertilizer will cease.
“We are investing about $1bn in rice cultivation. We have an out-growers scheme where thousands of farmers are empowered with improved seeds and items needed to cultivate rice.”
Mabogunje added that Dangote Group was at the forefront of job creation and was the largest employer of labour outside the Federal Government, and had been contributing its quota to the growth and development of the Nigerian economy for more than three decades.
Mabogunje said that the partnership with the Ogun Council of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, organisers of the fair, was a beneficial as Ogun State was the host of the 12 million metric tonnes per annum Dangote Cement Plant, Ibese, the second largest cement plant in Nigeria.
To mark its day at the fair, a subsidiary of the group, Dangote Cement, gave out several tools and implements to block moulders in the state in appreciation of their patronage.
Tolls such as wheel barrows, shovels, umbrellas and hand gloves were donated to the block moulders, who assembled from different areas of the state.
President of Ogun state Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Mrs. Adesola Adebutu , commended Dangote Group for its sponsorship and participation at the fair.
