Private equity investors in China, specifically the China Development Fund, plans to bear 50% of the cost of the project, while the Nigerian government will invest NGN853.2m ($514m), which will be raised through sovereign loans.
The construction of mills and processing plants are a part of the government's transformation programme for agriculture, which aims to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice production by 2015, by milling 2.1 million metric tons of rice which is currently being imported.
In addition, through the programme, Nigeria - which the leading producer of cassava in the world - seeks to replace 40% of the wheat flour used in the bread with cassava flour, and create an effective value chain for cassava.
The construction of the rice mills, which will be taken up by Chinese companies, will be done is a sequential manner and is expected to be completed over the next 24 months, reported Businessdayonline.com.
For the cassava project, the ministry has appointed a group featuring nutritionists, food processors, flour millers and the bakers to standardise the recipe for the manufacture of the nation's evolving cassava bread.
