Nigeria Will Soon Be Exporting Rice - Dangote

The Dangote Group has pledged to change Nigeria's narrative as a rice importing nation, to major exporter of the staple food.

The group said that its 150,000 hectares rice farmlands in Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Niger, Sokoto, and Zamfara States as well as 10 rice mills it was establishing in different parts of the country would deliver one million tons of rice annually.

This was disclosed by Dangote Group's Executive Director, Kunt Ulvmoen, when he spoke to captains of commerce and industry during the Dangote's Special Day, at the ongoing 33rd Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF).

According to Ulvmoen, Dangote had been known to be the number one in rice business in Nigeria until it took the decision to terminate any commodity trading that would not achieve value addition on locally.

Notwithstanding, consumers were still asking for the Dangote rice years after the group's decision to terminate rice importation, he said.

"So what do we do? We are entering into rice farming and processing and targeting a million tons output annually.

"We are already active in the farms. We have already got some paddy rice in some silos. We are also challenging others to do what we are setting out to do in order to make rice an exportable product in Nigeria," Ulvmoen added.