Dangote Launches 8,000 Hectares Of Rice Outgrowers Scheme In Jigawa

As the Government turns attention to agriculture to ease the pressure on the economy and create jobs, the President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, at the weekend flagged off his multibillion Naira 8,000 hectares of Rice Outgrowers Scheme in Hadejia, Jigawa State.

This will serve as part of Dangote’s partnership with governments at all levels to reduce food imports.

The launch of the scheme, marked with the distribution of rice seedlings to the benefitting farmers, is with potential to provide direct jobs for 5,000 farmers and another 5,000 indirect jobs for various scheme dependants.

The rice project being executed by Dangote Rice Limited and expected to be replicated in six other states of the federation, is a fallout of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between Dangote and the Federal Government on the one hand and the Jigawa State Government on another.Speaking shortly before he made the distribution, Alhaji Dangote explained that Nigeria depended on agriculture for economic development before the discovery of oil, noting that oil was meant to complement the agriculture, but sadly the nation abandoned agriculture and concentrated on oil.

He said: “Before the discovery of oil, our economy was built around potentials from our palm oil, groundnut, cotton, and rubber plantations.“Now the price of oil has plummeted from a peak of $116 per barrel in June 2014 to as low as $29 per barrel in January 2016.“This means there is huge loss of revenue to the government.”Justifying his decision to delve into agriculture, Dangote said Nigerian agricultural commodities and food imports bills averaged over N1 trillion in the past two years, with foods like sugar, wheat, rice and fish accounting for 93 per cent of the total cost of imports, a situation he described as unacceptable for anyone who loves the country.

He stated that huge amounts were being expended on food items that the country has the potential to produce locally, with attendant losses of employment generation and wealth creation opportunities.He added: “Yet the allocation of foreign exchange to import these items depletes the foreign reserves continually.”Dangote disclosed that the Dangote Rice Outgrowers Scheme has been designed as a one stop solution for the rice value chain, adding: “Farmers will be provided with training, necessary inputs with guaranteed buy back agreed price, will improve yield, production and income for the farmers.”

Excited at the initiative, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heneiken Lokpobiri, commended Dangote for his intervention in government’s efforts at providing food security for the citizenry, creating jobs and reducing dependency on food importation.okpobiri expressed government’s readiness to provide all the needed support to make the Dangote Rice Outgrowers Scheme a success.He said government cannot afford not to support it.According to him, a whooping sum of $20 billion is spent on importation of food items that could be produced locally.

The Federal government, he said, would like Dangote to take the lead in the government planned rice revolution to save the nation needless importation of foods and subsequent loss of jobsThe Minister noted that the government is putting in place a strategy that will make farmers have greater access to farm implements to help them produce with ease.

The Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Badaru Muhammed Abubakar, thanked Dangote Rice Limited for choosing the state as the pilot state for the project.Abubakar pledged the readiness of his administration to provide all necessary support to the project.The governor said he had no doubt in him that Dangote rice will succeed in turning around the economy of his state, adding that the company’s exploits in other sectors like cement, sugar, and lately in oil and gas is a pointer to the fact that Jigawa State is lucky to host Dangote Rice.