The Nigerian government has approved the establishment of 10 medium scale rice mills across the country.
The approval for the mills, which will cost 13.5 billion Naira, was made at the Federal Executive Council meeting held on Wednesday in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
It is part of the Federal Government’s efforts to diversify the Nigerian economy and shift it away from crude oil sales’ dependency to other sectors of the economy, with Agriculture topping the focus.
Before oil was discovered in Nigeria, agriculture used to be the mainstay of the economy and President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration had reiterated its commitment to making agriculture prominent in revenue generation.
Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, had in an interview in August identified rice farming as the most profitable in the Agriculture sector.
Dr Adesina said that the agriculture policy of the government had opened up the sector for more investments to thrive.
He said that the government had made necessary contributions in terms of high yield seedlings for small, medium and large scale farmers.
“If you invested 14 million dollars in an integrated rice mill in Nigeria today, the internal rate of return on the investment is 42 to 50 per cent and the time it takes you to pay back the investment is exactly two years. It is the most profitable thing that anyone can be doing in Nigeria today. That is because the population is rising and people are consuming more rice,” he said.
At the Wednesday meeting, the council also approved a contract for the construction new transformers for the people of Maiduguri in Borno State, one of the state in Nigeria’s north-east where the military is carrying out counter -terrorism operations.
A Presidential Board on Job Creation lead by Nigeria’s Vice President, Namadi Sambo and the Chairman of United Bank for Africa, Tony Elumelu , was also established by President Jonathan to look at ways of reducing unemployment rate.
The board, which was inaugurated on Wednesday, has been asked to do everything in their power to ensure that jobs were created for Nigerian youths.
Vice President Sambo is the chairman while Mr Elumelu is the vice chairman of the board, which members were selected from the public and private sector.
Addressing the board members, President Jonathan stressed the need for them to facilitate employment generation across the country, describing jobs as an essential element of economic revolution.