Investors commit $159m to revolutionise Nigeria’s cassava, oil palm value chains
Fayus Group, in coll aboration wi t h Shine Bridge Global ( SBG) and Africa Global Schaffer (AFGS), are investing $159 million in Nigeria’s oil palm and cassava value chains over three years.
Cha i rman of Fayus Group, Fatai Yusufu made this known in a statement issued on Sunday, after a virtual meeting to launch the company’s $159 million oil palm and cassava industrialisation investments.
Yusufu said Fayus had committed an additional $44 million in cassava processing, to bring the total investment commitment in the sector to $159 million.
“Fayus Nigeria Limited and Fayus Inc. (US) are also working with U. S.- based food and agro-allied services companies, Shine Bridge Global ( SBG) and Africa Global Schaffer ( AFGS), to co-invest in the cassava value chain in Nigeria.
“Fayus has committed an additional $44 million investment towards the cassava industrialisation programme for a total investment of $159 million in oil palm and cassava value chains over three years,’’ he said.
Yusufu explained that Fayus’ investments in Edo include a 200 hectares pilot oil palm plantation, two nurseries, dams, roads, irrigation systems, and other infrastructure assets totalling over $15 million.
He said that Fayus had committed to catalysing an additional $ 100 million in Edo, along with other investors under the `Edo State Oil Palm Program’ (ESOPP), to establish 46,000 hectares of oil palm plantations over the next five years.
“This is why at Fayus, we have partnered with the best of the best innovators from Malaysia to ensure the achievement of 60 tonnes per day milling capacity, in addition to refining and fractionation of crude palm oil into high-value consumer and industrial products.
“By working together, I believe we can accomplish this within three years, as we are aggregating and integrating smallholder farmers into our plantation establishment scheme to not only increase farmers’ income, but to create wealth and entrepreneurial opportunities for youths and women,” Yusufu said.
Yusufu commended Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo, describing him as a governor who understands the needs of the private sector to enable foreign direct investments.
He said that Obaseki had stepped up the underpinning to enable land acquisition for Fayus’ oil palm investments in the state, describing the governor as a real understanding professional.
“We need to continue the collaboration with Federal and State governments to plant 800,000 seedlings in 2021 while we also work on the establishment of a new oil palm nursery in the newly allocated 5,000 hectares in Edo.