Investor says tapping Nigeria’s Agro produce will address FOREX challenges
Investor says tapping Nigeria’s Agro produce will address FOREX challenges
The Managing Director of PET Group of companies, Ms Rehab Danladi, says that tapping the rich divergent Agro produces in Nigeria has the potential to solve the country’s foreign exchange challenges and boost the economy.
She said at a media discourse on Monday in Abuja, that Nigeria would be placed in the limelight to compete with the world’s best export market if properly harnessed.
It was gathered that Agro Farms, an affiliate of the PET Group, is set to start up a farm that will harness palm trees to get palm oil, processing them into vegetable oil and other by-products.
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According to the Managing Director, Nigeria should be making money from the production of palm oil, but there is not enough for the local market, hence the export potential is not utilised.
In her words, “We are looking at Kogi State; a Nigerian from Kogi for instance has no idea he has ‘gold in his backyard’; Kogi has the highest input of perm kernel and Nigeria is richly blessed with a lot of wealth from its farms.
“We’ve been here for 37 years, I have toured around the length and breadth of this country, exploring its rich diverse resources; we are all set to go, we have 40 plots of land in Kogi and a lot of youths will be meaningfully employed.
“There’s a lot for Nigeria to gain in this business because 80 per cent of our products will be for the export market while 20 per cent will be going into the local market.”
She added that prices of vegetable oil and soya beans oil would be subsidised in the Nigerian market.
Danladi said Agro farms was investing N150 million into the Nigerian Market, aside from the cost of land and machinery.
She added that NEXIM bank would assist the farms with loans to export the products outside the country.
