Dangote Group targets end 2018 for 250,000 tons Sokoto rice mill
Ajose Sehindemi is Businessamlive Reporter.
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Mansur Ahmed, the group executive director, stakeholder relations and corporate communications, Dangote Group, has disclosed that Dangote Rice Processing Mill with a production capacity of 250,000 metric tonnes per annum in Sokoto state in the northwest of Nigeria will be ready before December 2018.
He said Dangote Industries had already taken delivery of the milling machines which would be transported to Sokoto and installed as soon as the land is secured. Ahmed disclosed this during a visit to Sokoto governor, Aminu Tambuwal, on Wednesday.
“We have already identified 25 hectares of land suitable for the project and have our civil engineers on the ground. Our plan is to start the construction next week which will take six months to be completed,” he said, adding that the company plans to commence production before the end of this year to the tune of 32 metric tonnes per hour and 35,000 metric tonnes per annum.
Tambuwal promised to hand over the 27 hectares of land for the immediate establishment of Dangote Rice Mill in the state as the company prepares for production.
Tambuwal pledged his administration’s full support towards ensuring the success of the factory.
“By next Friday, Feb. 16, payment of compensation to landowners will commence while Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) will be handed to you next week,’’ Tambuwal assured the delegation.
He expressed optimism that the establishment of Dangote Rice Mill, which is to be located at Runji Village in Kware Local Government Area, would enhance economic activities in the state.
Dangote Rice Limited in 2017 had signed a tripartite agreement to create 16,000 outgrower rice farmers in Sokoto with a pledge by the parties to ensure the success of the scheme to make the country self-sufficient in rice cultivation.
In 2017 Dangote Group said it had finalized plans to establish a 250,000 tonnes per annum capacity rice mill in Kano State that will process all the rice harvested from the three states of Sokoto, Zamfara, and Kano.
Halima Dangote, executive director of Dangote Group, had revealed this at the Dangote Day at the 37th Kano Trade Fair, affirming that the group’s fertilizer project, the largest in Sub-Sahara Africa, with a capacity of 2.8 million tonnes per annum will be commissioned by the end of 2018.