Completion of Imota rice mill will collapse rice price – Legislator
The Chairman, Lagos State House Committee on Agriculture, Mr Kehinde Joseph, has called on the contractors working on the 32 metric tonnes per hour rice mill at Imota in Lagos to hasten the job and ensure its completion by December “in order to collapse the price of local rice in Nigeria.” Joseph stated this yesterday […]
The Chairman, Lagos State House Committee on Agriculture, Mr Kehinde Joseph, has called on the contractors working on the 32 metric tonnes per hour rice mill at Imota in Lagos to hasten the job and ensure its completion by December “in order to collapse the price of local rice in Nigeria.”
Joseph stated this yesterday when he led other members of the committee on an inspection tour and oversight function to the rice mill.
He emphasized that there was the need for the mill to start operation soon, adding that when the mill started functioning in December, it would collapse the prices of local rice, which he noted presently sells from N20,000.
He said, “We are here to see the percentage of work done. So far, it is commensurate with the percentage of the money the Agriculture ministry released to the government.”
The state acting Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms Abisola Olusanya, who led the House Committee to the site, noted that no fewer than 250,000 job opportunities would be created from input aggregators, providers, farmers, logistics and service providers, marketers and distributors along the entire value chain, in addition to the ripple effects of the project on the locality, among others.
Olusanya said, “By right, the mill should have been completed much earlier, but we all understand the issues around the pandemic, the total lockdown and the unavailability of flights. We have the biller team based in Switzerland and India who were supposed to help with regards to ensuring that the mill lines were adequately inspected before installation for the warranty process takes effect.
“If they were unable to come here, there would be a delay, which is why there was a bit of delay. But we are dealing with it. The team on ground is doing virtual calls and it has been able to bring in some of the biller expatriates down here to ensure that the installation continues.”
She assured that the mill would be “a job and wealth generator.”
“We believe that with the partnership of everyone in this locality and the state at large, we will start reaching our food security status goal of making sure that no Lagosian is hungry. There will be zero poverty, there will be gender equality and everyone will be happy,” she said.