The Kebbi Rice Revolution

I travelled to Kebbi today, 1 August 2017, with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to commission a rice mill, the Wacot Integrated Rice Mill.

The mill is capable of providing 10,000 direct and indirect jobs and it can process 120,000 tons of rice per annum. It is said to be the largest single line milll in Africa.

It was midwifed by the APC governor of Kebbi State, Senator Abubakar Bagudu , the Central Bank of Nigeria and a private concern. The governor of Kebbi where this is happening has only been in power for two years plus.

Kebbi State is working at producing three million tons of rice per annum. The state is also doing well in the production of wheat. Close to 80,000 indigenes have been mobilized to the farm using the anchor borrower program of the CBN for rice and wheat production.

In Kebbi people are investing and farmers are getting wealthy. Yield per hectare has quadrupled. The farming policy put in place by the State and the Federal Government is working. This is not the only plant in Kebbi.

There is also Labana Mill and more are still in the pipeline. Kebbi is determined to make rice do what oil has done for Nigeria. Kebbi has answered the clarion call by President Buhari that Nigeria must diversify its economy away from oil.

” This mill is important for several reasons and one is that the private sector is the agent of development. This is growth with jobs” in the next couple of years the plant will engage 50,000 farmers. The investment made in the past 10 months is worth N10 billion .