Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the Chairman, Dangote Group of Companies, has says 15, 000 farmers would benefit from the first phase of his rice growing and processing project located in Goronyo town in Sokoto state.
Dangote said this on Wednesday when he addressed newsmen at the Sultan Abubakar III International Airport, Sokoto.
Dangote said: “In the first phase, we are targeting 15,000 farmers and as time goes on, we will keep on increasing the number of beneficiaries as the project progresses.
“We are not only doing that, we are also setting up a factory there in Goronyo so that the processing of harvested rice can also be done there.
“ So, it will be rice grown and also processed in Goronyo Local Government Area.’’
Dangote also told newsmen tht his company was in the state to embark on a major transformation of agriculture sector starting with rice and sugar.
“In Sokoto, we have the possibility of doing much more than what we agreed , we have seen the dam and we can do more than 55,000 hectares of rice cultivation.”
He said the farmers would be provided with all incentives like chemicals, insecticides and nests for protection of their rice while fruiting against bird attacks.
Dangote added that the farmers would be adequately trained on the application of modern farming techniques.
“ We guarantee to buyback 100 per cent of the rice that will be produced from the farmers so they don’t have problems of funding.
`They will not lack money because we will give them everything.
“You can see that the strength of partnership is that we can create job opportunities, we will start with about 15,000 jobs but with time, we will increase the number to about 50,000 jobs.”(NAN)
MKH/BRM/PAD