The Dansa Group, a subsidiary of Dangote Group of the Companies, on Monday said it had concluded plans to invest £36m in the establishment of Africa’s largest energy food plant in Nigeria.
The Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, reportedly stated this in New York during an interview with journalists.
Adesina said the President, Dansa Group, Mr. Sanni Dangote, who broke the news at the meeting of a High Level World Advisory Group, in New York, said the move was aimed at supporting the country’s agriculture programme.
The meeting had in attendance global leaders like the Chairman, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr. Bill Gates; a former United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan; President, International Fund for Agriculture Development, Dr. Kanayo Nwanze; and President, African Development Bank, Dr. Donald Kaberuke.
Adesina said the world leaders would not waste their time in a venture that would not work and that they were very excited about Nigeria’s agricultural transformation agenda and recognised the fact that the country needed to diversify the economy.
He said, “Already, Bill Gates is spending million of dollars in Nigeria supporting this agenda, the African Development Bank is putting in $500m.
“So, this is about monitoring in Nigeria, giving it a push. Bill Gates said today that what Nigeria is doing in agriculture is extraordinary. And Kofi Annan said that what Nigeria is doing here makes it a leader in agriculture already in Africa; so, this is a further validation that Nigeria is on the right track.”
