As part of efforts to its contribution to advance food production in the country, Dangote Group has announced plans to invest $1bn in rice cultivation in five states of the federation.
In a statement made available to newsmen on Monday, Tunde Mabogunje, who represented the Dangote Group stated:
“We are investing about $1bn in rice cultivation. We have an out-growers scheme where thousands of farmers are empowered with improved seeds and items needed to cultivate rice.”
Mabogunje added that the Group was at the forefront of job creation as the largest employer of labour outside the Federal Government, and had been contributing its quota to the growth and development of the Nigerian economy for more than three decades.
Mabogunje, disclosed that the partnership with the Ogun Council of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, organisers of the fair, was a beneficial one as Ogun State was the host of the 12 million metric tonnes per annum Dangote Cement Plant, Ibese, the second largest cement plant in Nigeria.
To mark its day at the fair, a subsidiary of the group, Dangote Cement, gave out several tools and implements to block moulders in Ogun State in appreciation of their patronage.
Tolls such as wheel barrows, shovels, umbrellas and hand gloves were donated to the block moulders, who assembled from different areas of the state.
