Dangote reveals plans to deepen investment in sugar, rice, diary with $4.6bn in 3 years
Leading quintessential African investor and President, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has made public, fresh move to deepen presence in commercial agriculture in Nigeria.
According to the new drive, the group is set to pump about $3.8bn in sugar and rice, and another $800m in dairy production in the next three years.
On the company’s investments in dairy, industry analysts tend to link it to the recent achievement of backward integration in the production of milk by leading diary group, Friesland Campina WAMCO Nigeria, makers of Peak and Three Crown Milk brands.
Additional details gathered by Business Hilights indicated that Dangote Group is using the new investment drive to increase its production of sugar to 1.5 million tonnes a year by 2020 from current 100,000 tonnes.
This is as the company, with several blossoming rice farms across the country is seeking to add one million tonnes of rice.
Giving further development insights in a recent interview in Lagos, the Executive Director at Dangote’s industries’ unit, Edwin Devakumar, said the company also plans to breed 50,000 cows to produce 500 million litres of milk a year by 2019, he said.
According to him, “A lack of foreign exchange means companies need to invest in local agriculture to help meet demand for food from Nigeria’s population of more than 180 million”.
Devakumar added quickly that “All raw sugar has to be imported today, same thing for flour milling.”
He revealed further that part of the integrated development drive include to cultivate 350,000 hectares of land for sugar cane and add 200,000 hectares for rice.
Already, the group has placed fresh order for five plants that will deepen sugar milling and 10 for rice from Switzerland to be located in the north of the country.
Business Hilights recalls that through the investment consistency by Dangote Cement, Nigeria achieved full backward integration in cement production few years ago. The feat encouraged the investment magnate to invade other African economies with the gospel cement production.
Currently, the company remains Nigeria’s biggest listed company.
Having consolidated in cement, now venturing massively into agriculture, analysts say the drive is encouraging the economy to diversify away from oil which currently accounts for 90 per cent of Nigeria’s annual revenue.
