Dangote tomatoes set to tackle poverty, unemployment in Nigeria

KANO It's a situation that mirrors the giant oil industry, where Nigeria has abundant resources but has lacked the capacity, will or ability to exploit it, forcing a reliance on imports.

But Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote is hoping to change tomato production with a giant factory that will boost domestic output, create jobs -- and even, indirectly, fight Boko Haram.

For the past five years, the Dangote Group conglomerate he heads has been working to build a $20-million (18.4-million-euro) tomato processing plant outside the northern city of Kano.

The city and state of the same name has been blighted by poverty and unemployment, seen as key drivers to radicalisation fuelling the Islamist insurgency in the wider north since 2009.

But it's hoped the giant factory the size of 10 football pitches, set alongside 17,000 hectares (acres) of irrigated fields, will help by tapping a potential agricultural goldmine.

The country's agriculture ministry puts annual current demand for tomato puree at 900,000 tonnes.

When the Dangote factory opens from next month it will provide 430,000 tonnes of paste that is used widely in Nigerian dishes from jollof rice to fiery soups.

"Nigeria is such a huge market for tomato paste that we will find quite challenging to satisfy," the factory's general manager, Abdulkarim Kaita, told AFP.

"Already local tomato paste packaging companies have placed orders with us which we will have to work hard to satisfy.

"We are set to begin operations. We are only waiting for the tomatoes which are ripening in the fields."

  

Nigeria grows some 1.5 million tonnes of tomatoes every year, making it the 14th biggest producer in the world.

But it's forced to rely on imports of tomato puree, mostly from China, because of a lack of processing plants.

Dangote's factory, built by Switzerland-based Syngenta, will directly employ 120 people and 50,000 farmers have been engaged to grow the tomatoes required for the process of making concentrate.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has provided technical assistance such as soft loans for seeds and fertiliser. The factory will then buy the produce at competitive rates, said Kaita.

Currently, about half of the local tomato crop rots because of a lack of storage facilities, poor pricing and access to markets, which has prompted many farmers to stop cultivation, said the CBN.

The improved seed varieties to increase yields, access to chemicals, more up-to-date farming techniques and a ready market for the produce is designed to entice farmers back.

"Once we start production the factory will be providing employment to farmers and (the) tomato paste packaging industry, traders, haulage operators and many others to support the tomato value chain," said production manager Ashwin Patil.

Plans to increase production -- and acquire an idle tomato paste factory in neighbouring Kaduna state -- are in the pipeline, he added.

For farmers such as Yusuf Ado Kadawa, it's a lifeline.

"We really incur heavy losses from our yield, which rots away due to lack of (a) ready market for our tomatoes, which is a perishable produce. But now we have a market close to us," he said.

  

President Muhammadu Buhari is keen to diversify Nigeria's economy away from an over-reliance on oil as revenues have been severely depleted by the global slump in crude prices.

Former agriculture minister Akinwumi Adesina, now head of the African Development Bank, in 2013 described the sector as "the new oil".

Some 30 percent of Nigeria's estimated 170 million people are employed in agriculture, mostly at a subsistence level, although moves have been made to commercialise production.

Erratic power supply, which Nigeria has been grappling with for more than two decades, and lack of import controls remain the factory's main challenges.

The factory will have to rely on diesel-hungry generators for electricity, adding to production costs and reducing competitiveness with cheaper imports.

Both issues contributed to the collapse of hundreds of factories in Dangote's home state of Kano in the past two decades, including his textile and wheat flour factories.

But the vice-president of Nigeria's manufacturers union, Ali Madugu, said the future still looked bright.

"Once the government can place restrictions on the import of Chinese tomato pastes... the sky's the limit for the Dangote tomato paste because the market is there for them to exploit," he added.

Africa's richest man donates to Congo blast victims

LAGOS Africa's richest man, Nigerian Aliko Dangote, has donated $500,000 to victims of last month's munitions blasts in Congo which killed at least 282 people, his group said on Tuesday..
   Dangote made the donation at the weekend in the Congolese capital Brazzaville with a pledge to increase his charity works as well as create more jobs for Africans this year.
   "About this philanthropy, I think from this year, I personally want to take it very seriously. I want to be much more aggressive than what we have had in the past," he said in a statement.
   Speaking at the occasion, Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso said that his government has started reconstruction of houses affected in the blasts, adding that "this contribution will go a long way in building new houses for the victims," the statement said.
   Dangote, rated by Forbes as Africa's richest man with vast interests in oil and gas, banking, flour, sugar and food production in Nigeria, also operates in about a dozen other African countries.
   The powerful March 4 blasts in Brazzaville, blamed on a short-circuit and fire, killed at least 282 people, injured 2,300 more and destroyed hundreds of homes around the munitions depot, leaving 14,000 people homeless.

Forbes suggests Mike Adenuga might be Africa's Richest Man

The 2011 Forbes publication of its annual rankings of the world's richest people has been trailed with controversies owing to the rating of debutant Mike Adenuga as the second richest Nigerian, with a net worth of $2billion behind Aliko Dangote's $13.8 billion.

According to a Forbes reporter, controversy erupted in the Nigerian media circles as some analysts and Adenuga's staff dismissed the Forbes valuation as incorrect not matching Adenuga's wealth.

According to Forbes annual rankings of the world’s richest people, they prefer to be conservative in their estimates. Forbes would rather be too low than too high. When working on the 2011 list of the world’s richest, a Forbes reporter tried to reach Dr. Adenuga’s representatives to verify his assets, but Adenuga, a chronically reclusive tycoon, did not respond. As a result, Forbes' valuation of the man was based solely on his stake in his telecom company Globacom Holding, which at the time was worth $2 billion.

According to Forbes, fresh from a variety of sources including staff from some of his offices, the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission and analysis from professionals in the energy and telecom sectors indicate that the reclusive telecoms and energy tycoon is easily worth more than $2 billion, and depending upon who you talk to, could be richer than Aliko Dangote, last worth $13.8 billion.

Apart from his 74% stake in Conoil PLC, a Nigerian-listed oil marketing firm he founded (the stake is held through ConPetro Limited, a holding company he fully owns) and his holding in Equitorial Trust Bank, Adenuga owns 100% equity in all his other businesses. Of those, the major assets include Conoil Producing, Nigeria’s largest indigenous oil exploration and production company, which operates six producing oil blocks and holds a 25% stake in Joint Development Zone Block 4, an oil prospecting license which has proven reserves of close to 1 billion barrels of oil and close to a trillion cubic feet of gas.

According to Forbes findings at Conoil Producing, the company produces 100,000 barrels of oil per day – much more than any other indigenous exploration firm in the country. In April, Adenuga spent $650 million acquiring Shell’s stake in Oil Mining License (OML) 30, Shell’s most profitable onshore oil block in Nigeria, which is located in the western swamps of the Niger Delta. Adenuga currently controls total equity of Conoil Producing, which analysts estimate could be worth as much as $10 billion. (Inconclusive)

Among his other assets: mobile telecom firms Globacom Holding and Globacom West Africa, two distinct companies with a combined subscriber base in excess of 30 million people and operations in Nigeria, Ghana, and Benin. Adenuga also single-handedly owns Globacom – at least on paper.

Adenuga also owns equity in Equitorial Trust Bank, one of the few privately-held commercial banks in the country. I haven’t been able to establish Adenuga’s stake in the bank, or its market value. However, Equitorial Trust Bank is one of Nigeria’s less popular banks, so I reckon it won’t be worth so much. The man also owns extensive real estate holdings in some of Nigeria’s most expensive neighborhoods, including the Mike Adenuga Towers, a landmark building in Victoria Island, Lagos. He also owns property in Banana Island – Nigeria’s most expensive neighborhood – and several other properties in Abuja, London, the US and Dubai.

Tracking down Adenuga’s net worth is tough work, involving intensive research, series of meetings, conversations and consultations with analysts, journalists, and Adenuga employees. The man himself continually refuses to talk. Speculations are rife in Nigeria that Adenuga might be a front for Nigeria’s former military president, Ibrahim Babangida. So in a real sense, Adenuga might not own it all. However, Adenuga’s people have denied a business relationship between their boss and the former Nigerian ruler.

A couple of weeks ago, the Forbes reprter had a lengthy conversation with Chief Dele Momodu, one of Africa’s most legendary publishers, a former Nigerian presidential candidate, and a protégé of billionaire Mike Adenuga. I was doing research for one of our Forbes lists, and I was seeking his insight into the wealth of some of Nigeria’s richest people. Speaking on Adenuga, he said: “No one in Africa is as rich as Mike Adenuga.”