Chairman Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, last weekend inaugurated a new 8000 hectares of rice out-growers scheme in Hadejia, Jigawa State to ease the country’s food import dependency, the Daily Post reports.
Last week, Mr. Dangote said the group was struggling with a tightened supply of foreign exchange, and is relying on its international cement operations and export-credit agencies to come up with a solution to the shortage.
Speaking during the event, the cement mogul 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.”
“The allocation of foreign exchange to import these items depletes the foreign reserves continually.”
“Farmers will be provided with training, necessary inputs with guaranteed buy back agreed price, will improve yield, production and income for the farmers”, he added.
