The market for mergers and acquisition has started gaining momentum. Union Dicon Salt PLC, a consumer goods and agro industrial sector conglomerate has just invested USD100 million in Alape Staple Crop Processing Zone, SCPZ in Kogi State.
In a statement released by the company, The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, FMARD has rubber stamped the deal.
Union Dicon Salt Plc will henceforth replace Cargill as the core investor in Alape Staple Crop Processing Zone in Kogi State. Cargill, the US-based agro-industrial company that initially invested in the project.
According to the company, the approval was consummated at a meeting with the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, and the Chief Executives of Union Dicon Salt Plc in Abuja last weekend.
Commenting on the deal, Chief Audu Ogbeh said “I’m glad to see that a Nigerian company is taking over this very important project, and is championing the indigenous development of agribusiness. We are not going to engage in policy somersault. 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.”
According to Chuka Mordi and Bex Nwawudu of Union Dicon Salt Plc, the company 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. 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.”
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