Niger Delta region is set to join mass rice producing scheme that may create 1,000 jobs as the N1.5 billion rice mills built by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) since 10 years ago are set to come into operation.
The region is also to join the rice out-growers scheme in a deal brokered by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture between the NDDC and an intending operator, the Elephant Group.
BusinessDay gathered that NDDC built two rice mills in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states almost 10 years ago with technical support from Thailand, but the mills remained fallow all the while as different managements come and go.
NDDC sources said the mills had undergone degradation in terms of rusty parts and missing components. A reactivation scheme is to be undertaken by Elephant Group as soon as the final agreement is signed and the mills are handed over, starting with the one in Elele in Rivers State.
It was gathered that discussions on such prospect had been going on between the Ministry of Agriculture and the NDDC leading to inspection of the mills by the managing director of the NDDC, Nsima Ekere to prepare them for reactivation.
The MD told the minister that it was a huge shock for him when he and his team saw huge assets wasting for a decade. “This is against every single thing that spirit of the Commission stands for.”
He said in the new spirit of zero tolerance for waste and corruption, the present management and board of the Commission resolved to put the mills to operational use to create over 1000 jobs and more wealth.
Ekere said the rice-milling scheme would create a new template for his touted New Niger Initiative on life after oil to be hinged on agriculture and food security. He reminded the minister that the region had more potential for agriculture than hydrocarbon industry, and said the Niger Delta people would begin to eat rice milled in the region.
Speaking earlier at the NDDC conference room in Port Harcourt Monday, the minister of state for agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri, the reactivation of the mills in the region is to integrate the Niger Delta into the Federal Government’s food security project and to ensure that the oil region was made a massive rice zone.
He said rice paddy for milling were to come from the north only but that an out-grower’s scheme would ensure that paddy is supplied from the Niger Delta. He too talked of the huge prospects for jobs and wealth creation.
On the proposed operators, the minister said; “Elephant Group is one of the biggest in Nigeria in rice milling operations where foreigners dominate. They have the financial muscle revive the mill in Elele, rebuild the plants and develop an out-growers’ scheme”.
He said for the Acting President to give him permission to come on the visit showed the keen interest of the FG on food security and the rice mill system in the Niger Delta.
At the end of the meeting, the NDDC CEO ordered immediate action beginning with due diligence on the proposed private operators to get immediate approval from the board.
This may be the first major public private partnership scheme of the NDDC to hand over the mills to private operators and end the dormancy and waste of almost one decade.
Ignatius Chukwu
