Lagos State is set to join the league of states in the country that produce rice with the multi-billion naira 32-metric tonnes per hour rice mill that is almost completed at Imota.
The rice mill according to the state government will be completed and ready for operation by the end of 2020.
IMPACT NEWS gathered that the rice mill had attained 80 per cent completion level from 35 per cent when the administration assumed office in May 2019.
The Commissioner for Agriculture in the state, Gbolahan Lawal, revealed this on Sunday, said the mill when operational will ensure a steady supply of freshly processed rice of about 2.4 million bags of 50kg per annum to Lagosians, in addition to over 250,000 jobs to be created in both the upstream and downstream sectors of the rice value chain.
The commissioner explained that effective efforts had been put into backward integration along the rice value chain to ensure an adequate supply of paddy to the mill for smooth operations.
He said that the backward integration included the identification of farmers’ groups in conjunction with other states to cultivate the required amount of paddy and the provision of inputs such as seeds, fertiliser and irrigation facilities were applicable to the farmers.
“To meet the paddy requirement of the mill, we have undertaken a backward integration in the form of collaboration with other states like Southwestern states, Kwara, Sokoto, Benue, Borno and Kebbi.
“This will be done leveraging on the Anchor Borrower Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with the rice mill as the off-taker of the products,” Lawal said.
