NIGERIA – Tamaidukka Group, a Nigerian diversified investment company with intrests in agro-industry and real estate development will be investing US$25 million in developing an agro-based industrial park in Kaduna State.

The company said that the industrial park will house a soya bean and cotton seeds processing plant for the production of vegetable oils for domestic and industrial use with much focus on export.

Speaking at the formal hand over of the site for the park in Kaduna, the chairman of the company, Alhaji Ahmed Suleiman Leda, noted that the facility will have a daily processing capacity of 500 tonnes of both soya beans and cotton seeds.

The facility, which is expected to fully commence operation by January 2019, will also have an installed capacity of producing 280 tonnes of animal feed.

Alhaji added that the investment is also part of the company’s efforts of creating indigenous jobs by sourcing raw materials from local farmers within Kaduna and surrounding states.

“This move alone will create up to 500 jobs directly and another five hundred indirectly, and will guarantee a reliable market to at least one hundred thousand farmers in the state and neighbouring states,” he said.

The Kaduna State Government through its Investment and Promotions Agency (KADIPA) the state’s Urban Planning Development Agency (KASUPDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (KEPA) have given all required approvals for the project, reports The Punch.

Nigeria plans 8-fold increase in palm oil production

Nigeria plans to invest US$500 million (N180 billion) to increase its palm oil production from around 600,000 tons a year to 5 million tons a year by 2027.

The policy, laid out in a report from Nigeria’s trade and investment ministry, aims to meet all of the country’s domestic palm oil demand by 2027 by doubling Nigeria’s palm oil estate to 6 million hectares.

Nigeria ranks third in the world in terms of land area planted with oil palm, but it is only the fifth largest palm oil producer due to low yields.

Much of Nigeria’s oil palm cultivation is grown by small-holders who grow oil palms with other crops rather than the industrial oil palm plantation approach seen in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

According to a Bloomberg report, the production targets under the new policy indicate that investment will be focused on industrial plantations.