Lagos State Government has concluded plans to release additional 20,000 bags of Eko Rice for distribution to various designated markets for the period of Yuletide in the month of December.The Lagos State government had signed a funding agreement with the Lagos Commodities and Futures Exchange (LCFE) to raise US$ 216M from investors to reinforce the Imota rice mill operations in a bid to exploit its capacity.…lists availability challenges
…we can’t flood all markets with Eko Rice-SA
By Olasunkanmi AkoThe Lagos State government had signed a funding agreement with the Lagos Commodities and Futures Exchange (LCFE) to raise US$ 216M from investors to reinforce the Imota rice mill operations in a bid to exploit its capacity.
However, it was gathered that the sum of N300 billion had been expended on the construction of the facility so far.
Imota mill was then commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari early year 2023 as the country aimed toward self-sufficiency in rice production.
The ultra-modern mill, the largest in Africa and third globally has a production capacity of 32 metric tonnes per hour with an overall storage capacity of 40,000 tonnes.
The mill is operated by Wacot Rice Limited, a subsidiary of the investment holding company Tropical General Investment (TGI) Group, and is expected to produce around 2.5 million 50 kg bags of rice per year under the “Eko Rice” brAccording to Fashola, “The rice mill initiative has an annual need of more than 240 000 tons of paddy to fully exploit its capacity.
“If we don’t have enough paddy rice which is our raw material, all the equipment and infrastructure we have at Imota will be useless.
“Thanks to the state Governor’s support in partnership with Commodities Exchange, we can maintain the flow of paddy to the mill.
“Lagos is the largest consumer of rice in Nigeria. Lagos consumes 40m bags of rice annually. On a daily basis we have about 25 million people and each person consumes on a yearly basis about 50kg so we can start breaking it down to what a person consumes in a year.
“We produce 10 percent of what Lagos consumes. We are hoping to go to 20 percent but right now we produce 10 percent.