Firm To Establish USD100m Ultra Modern Soya Beans Processing Plant In Nasarawa

Olams Nigeria Limited, has unveiled plans to build a USD100m ultra modern soya bean crushing and processing plant along the Keffi/Abuja expressway.

 

Ade Adefeto, Vice President Corporate Affairs and Government Relations, disclosed this while on an official visit on Nasarawa State governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, at the Government House, on Wednesday.

 

Mr Adefeto, who led a team from Olams to the Nasarawa State Government House, requested for the government to provide his company with about 200 hectares of land where the planned ultra modern soya bean crushing and processing plant will be sited.

 

He explained that already, Olams has established state-of-the-art poultry and fish feed plants in Ilorin, Kwara State and Kaduna State, with such facilities directly addressing the supply gap for poultry products in Nigeria, giving farmers and distributors access to high quality feed, as well as day old chicks.

 

Mr Adefeto added that the company’s local sourcing of raw materials such as soya beans and corn for its animal feed operations, has positively impacted on the lives of more than 300, 000 small holder farmers in the country.

 

On the envisaged plant in Nasarawa, he explained that Olams will implement backward integration by establishing a soya beans crushing and processing plant with an initial capacity of about 50, 000 metric tonnes, which is to be scaled up over three years to 300, 000 metric tonnes.

 

“The purpose mainly is to establish an ultra modern soya beans crushing and processing plant with a capacity for 750 tonnes per day in phase one and upscaled again over a period of three years,” he stated.

 

According to the Olams’s vice president, the proposed multi million dollar investment will significantly impact farmers livelihoods, as well as generate thousands of skilled and unskilled jobs, in line with the policy thrust of the Engineer Sule administration.

 

Mr Adefeto further disclosed plans by his company to upscale the soya beans  processing plant to other agricultural commodities such as groundnuts in the future, thus making Nasarawa State a bastion of employment prospects.

 

“It’s important to understand that Nasarawa State is the gateway to the North West, North East and North Central, that is why we are giving Nasarawa State the first option,” he said.

 

Responding, Nasarawa State governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, described the proposal from Olams Nigeria Limited, as the greatest birthday gift he will receive.

 

A visibly excited Engineer Sule while thanking the Olams Group for everything the company is doing not only in Nasarawa State but the country at large, narrated how he has to delay the signing of the 2022 budget, in order to host officials from Olams.

 

“I told you that we will shift everything that we are doing today in order to recieve you because we want the USD100m to come to Nasarawa State,” he stated.

 

The governor immediately constituted a team comprising of the state Commissioner for Lands and Urban Development, Hon. Mohammed Tanimu Sarki, Commissioner for Agriculture, Hon. Nuhu Ibrahim Oshafu, MD/CEO Nasarawa Investment Development Agency (NASIDA) and Special Adviser on Political Matters, Hon. Mohammed Dikko, to liaise with representatives of Olams, with a view to finding suitable location for the proposed plant.

 

Recall that, already Olams Nigeria Limited, has established a multi million dollar rice production company located in Rukubi, Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.