Tim Cocks Lagos
NIGERIA enjoys a perfect rice-growing climate over a vast area yet it is the world’s second biggest importer of the staple, often from countries in its warm, wet tropical latitude like top exporter Thailand.
It’s one of those baffling Nigerian paradoxes, like the fact that it is Africa’s top oil producer yet suffers frequent fuel shortages; or that it is sitting on the eighth largest gas reserves but can only produce a few hours of power a day.
As with the other bottlenecks holding back Africa’s biggest economy, decades of bad governance and corruption lie at the root of Nigeria’s agricultural dysfunction. But unlike oil, where reform remains deadlocked by vested interests, the government is making efforts to clean up the farming sector and attract investment.
Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote thinks he can resolve the rice conundrum. He plans to do this by investing in farmland and mechanising farming practices in a country where many farmers still depend on pre-industrial tilling techniques. Given his track record in other areas, this is a project to watch.
“Everything you need for rice is here, but unfortunately for a long time no one was interested,” he said. Not having enough land was the first obstacle that faced him after he thought of the idea. He was surprised at how easily that got solved, as the governments of Jigawa, Niger, Kebbi, Edo and Kwara states between them offered 50 000 hectares to Dangote Industries.
“I think this is enough for us to grow and process up to a million tons of rice in the next four years,” he said. “I believe this is just the beginning.”
To back up his optimism, he points to his past success in producing cement. Dangote grew his company over a decade from a relatively small cement import business to a behemoth that manufactures almost 30 million tons of the stuff a year, makes up a third of Nigeria’s stock exchange and has factories in various stages of completion across the continent.
For decades Nigeria was one of the biggest cement importers. “We (Nigeria) were producing less than 2 million tons of cement,” in 2004, the tycoon said.
Ten years later and Nigeria as a whole produced some 40 million tons a year, said Dangote, whose cement empire worth an estimated $20 billion (R222bn) had earned him the label “richest black person on the planet” from Forbes magazine.
This month, Dangote Cement even had to cut prices to make up for falling sales amid oversupply.
Like cement, demand for rice among Nigeria’s 170 million population is huge, so he won’t need to think about exporting it. Dangote estimates the current rice deficit at 2.5 million tons a year.
Nigerians eat rice in outsized portions and no party is complete without mountains of bright orange “jollof” rice – a West African style of cooking the grains in tomato paste, onions and peppers. Parboiled rice is favoured.
President Goodluck Jonathan made local production of rice a signature promise before he was elected in 2011. His government has an ambitious target to import zero rice by the end of 2015, using incentives for farmers like free fertiliser and tax breaks for investors. Jonathan will seek another term in February.
Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina has cleaned up corruption in government handouts of imported fertiliser, which have been hampered by fraud and an inefficient supply chain. That was a major obstacle to development of the sector. – Reuters