…takes over as core investor in $100m Alape Staple Crop Processing Zone (SCPZ)
JUNE 22 2016-The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has agreed that Union Dicon Salt Plc will replace Cargill as the core investor in the $100m Alape Staple Crop Processing Zone in Kogi State. This was the high point of the meeting of the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, with the Chief Executives of UDS Plc. in Abuja at the week end.
“I’m glad to see that a Nigerian company is taking over this very important project, and is championing the indigenous development of agribusiness,” Chief Audu Ogbeh noted. Stressing that “we are not going to engage in policy somersault, Ogbeh, pointed that that “we are carrying on with the great idea” of SCPZ “and we are adding even greater ideas. We are carrying on as we now produce what we call the green alternative: that alternative being agriculture,” since oil and gas are “unstable sources of income.”
The company executives hinted that they will be setting up the largest starch processing company in Nigeria and growing 30,000 hectares of cassava farm, an unprecedented venture by an indigenous company.
Chuka Mordi and Bex Nwawudu of Union Dicon Salt Plc. who met with the Minister, thanked him for his support, in taking over the Alape project valued at $100 million, replacing Cargill, the US-based agro-industrial giant. With this, Union Dicon plc will be cultivating Cassava on 30,000 hectares of land in Alape, Kogi State.
“It is a remarkable opportunity to develop the agribusiness space in Nigeria from a fully indigenous perspective. Union Dicon is listed in the Nigerian Stock Exchange, and it is a wholly Nigerian company,” Mordi said at the meeting. According to him, “we are grateful for the support given by the Honourable Minister, and the Agriculture Ministry, after careful consideration of our proposal. Their detailed understanding and focus on new capital investment, import substitution and job creation really impressed us and allows Union Dicon Plc to move forward confidently in a willing and positive partnership.”
Nwawudu, noted that the outcome of the meeting would accelerate the progress on the Kogi State project in the next few months, expressing readiness to move “very quickly to site.” He thanked the minister for ensuring policy continuity “as a priority,” stressing the “need to ensure local content.”
Union Dicon Salt Plc (NSE: UNIONDICON) operates in the Nigerian Consumer Goods, and Agro Industrial Sector, and is building the largest industrial starch processing facility in Nigeria.
