Kebbi pockets N150bn from rice backward integration partnership, Lagos mute
Three days after the Kebbi State government has revealed that it smiled to bank after earning a whooping N150bn from the sale of its locally cultivated rice; the Lagos State government who sealed the successful partnership with the state is yet to open up even though the product has been on sale in parts of Lagos.
Business Hilights recalls that at the onset of present administration’s rice backward integration, Lagos and Kebbi States formed a strategic alliance towards the production of local rice brand which they named Lake Rice (La-Lagos, Ke-Kebbi).
According to the deal, whereas Lagos State provides the financial resources, Kebbi will contribute its land and manpower for the production of Lake Rice which is now sold at a highly competitive price to smuggled rice at designated places include all Agricultural Extension Offices and liaison offices across the state.
However, barely two years into the deal, Kebbi State Governor, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, said the revolutionaised rice farming in the state has jerked up the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) since the product has hit the market.
The governor, who played host to Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Hassan Bello, in his office that the state will continue to deepen investments in the rice sector considering the return on investments so far gotten by the state in a short period of time.
Out of excitement, Governor Bagudu averred that “As part of measure to earn more from the popular staple food and shore up the economy of the state, three giant rice millers, Wocat Rice Processing Mill, Dangote Rice Processing Mill and Dadangari Rice Processing Mill are working at full capacity with the state earning about N150 billion from sale of rice last year alone”.
According to him, “Kebbi as an agrarian state has enormous potentials in agriculture coupled with acquatic splendour which positions the state as part of the Blue Sea economy.
The Shippers’ Council boss had visited to inform Senator Bagudu on the plan to develop an Inland Container Depot, ICD and a Truck/Trail Transit Park in the state.
Bagudu assured the management of NSC that any people-oriented project embarked upon by them that will ensure trade facilitation and sustained economic growth will be supported by his administration.
