Olam Nigeria Limited, a leading company in the animal feed industry, is currently developing plans to construct a $100 million ultra-modern soybean crushing and processing plant in Nasarawa State, which will employ over 1,000 people.
The project, which will be located along the Keffi-Abuja expressway, will encompass approximately 200 hectares of land.
During an official visit to the Government House in Lafia, Ade Adefeto, vice president corporate affairs and government relations, revealed the information. He was there to meet with Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule.
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The company’s CEO, Adefeto, explained that Olam already has state-of-the-art poultry and fish feed plants in the cities of Ilorin, Kwara State, and Kaduna State, with these facilities directly addressing the supply gap for poultry products in Nigeria by providing farmers and distributors with access to high-quality feed as well as day-old chicks.
He went on to say that the company’s local sourcing of raw materials for its animal feed operations, such as soya beans and corn, has had a positive impact on the lives of more than 300,000 small holder farmers in the country as a result of its animal feed operations.
He went on to say that Olam will implement backward integration by establishing a soya bean crushing and processing plant in Nasarawa with an initial capacity of approximately 50, 000 metric tonnes, which will be scaled up over three years to a total capacity of 300,000 metric tonnes.
In particular, he explained, “the goal is to establish an ultramodern soya bean crushing and processing plant with a capacity of 750 tonnes per day in phase one, which will be scaled up again over a three-year period.”
According to him, the proposed multimillion-dollar investment will have a significant impact on farmers’ livelihoods while also creating thousands of skilled and unskilled jobs, which is in line with the policy thrust of the Sule government.
The CEO also revealed that his company has plans to expand the soya bean processing plant to include other agricultural commodities such as groundnuts in the future, thereby making Nasarawa State a hotbed of employment opportunities.
In his words, “It’s critical to understand that Nasarawa State serves as a gateway to the northern hemisphere’s North West, North East, and North Central regions, which is why we are giving Nasarawa State the first option.”
In his response, the governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, described the proposal from Olam Nigeria Limited as “the greatest birthday gift” he would ever receive.
Sule expressed gratitude to the Olam Group for all that the company has done not only in Nasarawa State, but also throughout the country.
The governor stated, “I told you that everything that we are doing today will be shifted in order to receive you because we want the $100 million to come to Nasarawa State,” which he explained.
The governor immediately formed a team consisting of the state Commissioner for Lands and Urban Development, Mohammed Tanimu Sarki, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Nuhu Ibrahim Oshafu, the MD/CEO of the Nasarawa Investment Development Agency (NASIDA), and the state’s Special Adviser on Political Matters, Mohammed Dikko, with the goal of liaising with representatives of Olam in order to find a suitable location for the proposed factory.
If it is not already clear, Olam Nigeria Limited has already established one of the largest multi-million dollar rice production companies in Africa, which is located in Rukubi, Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.
