Sahel Capital says it has concluded an agreement for a significant investment in Coscharis Farms Limited.
According to a statement by Sahel Capital, the fund managers for the Fund for Agricultural Finance in Nigeria (“FAFIN”), noted that the investment in Coscharis Farms which is currently developing a 2,500ha rice cultivation scheme with an irrigation system is to enable multi-cycle rice cultivation, and to meet part of the estimated 5.9 million MT annual rice demand in Nigeria.
To achieve this, the farm is in the process of installing a 40,000 MT per year rice mill.
Sahel Capital on its part said it plans to invest FAFIN over the next two years, backing sustainable businesses that seek to revolutionize the Nigerian agribusiness landscape while creating jobs, improving productivity, and strengthening priority value chains.
It also revealed that African Development Bank, CDC Group, and the Dutch Good Growth Fund have jointly committed $31 million to FAFIN, joining existing co‐sponsors of the fund to drive agricultural transformation in Nigeria.
The Coscharis Farm is located in Anambra State. The farm is currently growing on 2500 hectares of land with anticipated 5000 hectares of the out-growers scheme in the first phase of the project implementation.
The farm targets 20,000 metric tons of rice by the end 2018 and plans to expand cultivation to 10, 000 hectares of land in the second phase of the project with a capacity to produce about 70,000 metric tons of rice.
Dr. Cosmas Maduka, President/CEO of Coscharis Group and Chairman of Coscharis Farms expressed his delight with the new partnership with Sahel capital noting that the group is not only an industry leader but one that will also provide economic opportunities for smallholder farmers and young people in the country.
The Federal government has promised to ban the importation of rice into the country to boost local production of rice in the country. To achieve self- sufficiency in rice production it has launched various programs aimed at encouraging local cultivation.
Sahel Capital is a private equity firm specializing in the agriculture, agribusiness, manufacturing, and consumer goods sector.
It invests in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a focus on processors; logistics and storage; producers; input providers, as well as a secondary focus on intermediaries that extend financing to agricultural SMEs and farmers.
