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Osinbajo commissions N10b WACOT rice mill in Kebbi

By Gbenga Akinfenwa
06 August 2017   |   4:15 am
The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has commissioned WACOTRice Limited’s state-of-the-art rice mill, with capacity of processing over 120,000 metric tonnes of paddy per annum.

WACOTRice Limited

The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has commissioned WACOTRice Limited’s state-of-the-art rice mill, with capacity of processing over 120,000 metric tonnes of paddy per annum.

The N10b investment, sited in Argungu, Kebbi State, will also create over 3,500 direct and indirect jobs, as the company participates in the entire rice value chain, from seed multiplication and improving farming practices, to processing, branding and distribution.

Group Managing Director of TGI Group, the parent company of WACOTRice Limited, Mr. Rahul Savara, who spoke during the official opening of the mill, said as the company increases its capacity, it will be off-taking paddy rice from over 50,000 rice farmers.

He noted that the mill is part of WACOT’s expansion plan, which targets an increase in its rice milling capacity to 500,000 metric tons in the next few years.

Savara applauded the Federal Government for its various initiatives in support of agriculture through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other mediums, which are making the vision of ‘ease of doing business’ for the private sector possible.

Commending TGI Group for supporting and investing in the food security vision of the Federal Government, Osinbajo restated that government will in the next two years concentrate its attention on agriculture and food security, energy, (power and petroleum), industrialisation and transport infrastructure.

He also disclosed that the Federal Government would continue to work closely with the private sector, giving them the necessary incentives and creating enabling environment for them to invest and do business.

“With this Rice Mill, several thousands of our farmers have been engaged in farming, this is a growth with job and the Group Managing Director has assured that in a couple of years, they expect to have engaged 50,000 more farmers. This is the kind of private sector led growth that we want to see,” he said.

While conducting dignitaries round the factory, Managing Director of the company, Mr. Ujwalkanta Senapati drew their attention to the large stock holding of paddy within the factory. He informed them that the fully automated silos have the capacity to store raw materials for up to six months of production.

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