Buhari Moves to Expand Nigeria’s Wheat Capacity, Chinese Firms Braces for $50 Million Investment

The Buhari administration is currently taking major steps to expand Nigeria’s capacity in wheat production. It has already entered into a partnership deal with Crown Flour Mills.

This is coming as a Chinese firm, Chinese Green Industry Company has promised to invest $50 million in the country’s agricultural sector through a partnership with a Nasarawa State-based farmers’ group, Nigerian Farmers Group and Cooperative (NFGCC).

A Consultant and Representative of the firm, Li Jian made this known after a visit to the NFGCS Managing Director, Reston Tedheke, who also doubles as the National Coordinator of the group.

Jian says the firm will invest in warehousing, dairy, machinery upgrade, improved seedlings, and animal feed, across the value chain.

“I have seen what you have here and we are going to take the project in phases. This will depend on the area of interest.

“I will talk with partners from Japan, Korea and India. The money is not the issue but how they can be properly utilised”, she said.

Managing Director of NFGCS on his part expresses optimism in the prospects of this partnership.

The collaboration, according to him, will create more job opportunities for locals; seeing that Nigerian-Asian partnerships have always yielded great results.

“The interest of the Chinese company and our partnership with them will further boost productivity and create more job opportunities for people”, he asserted.

In the mean time, the government partnership on wheat is a deliberate attempt to reduce the influx of wheat importation and conserve the much-needed foreign exchange.

Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Sabo Nanono, who made the development public added that his ministry was making concerted efforts to ensure food security and create jobs in the agriculture sector.

Nanono who played host to officials from Crown Flour Mills led by the Corporate Affairs Manager, Damilola Adeniyi, lauded the firm for its resolve in seeking to expand the wheat sub-sector.

The minister revealed that the initiative will see to the provision of quality seeds and distribution of agricultural inputs to Nigerian farmers to boost their yields.

Among other initiatives for the wheat sub-sector include partnership deals with the Central Bank of Nigeria, Flour Milling Association of Nigeria, Transformation for Africa Agricultural Technologies and the Wheat Compact Project.

He assured that Nigeria will soon experience a total sufficiency in the production of wheat and also for export purposes.

Adeniyi on her part disclosed that the project will see to the provision of new seed varieties and modern technology to facilitate the growth and expansion of wheat production.

She divulged that her company planned to introduce the findings of a research trial it conducted recently on the cultivation of a heat-tolerant variety of wheat.

Crown Flour Mills, she said, sought to seek the collaboration of the ministry on wheat production, adding that the initiative will enhance the quality of wheat produce across the country.

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