Lagos, Nigeria
Lagos is the largest city in Africa, with an estimated population of more than 21 million people. Rice is a staple food for this vast and growing city, which means that improving rice value chains has long been a priority for the Nigerian authorities when it comes to enhancing the country’s food security.
A key part of this strategy was the 2017 decision to build a major milling facility to process the huge amounts of rice grown in Nigeria. Not only is the Lagos State Rice Mill increasing food security, it has also brought countless other economic benefits to the region – including more than 1,000 jobs.
The fully automated mill is equipped with Bühler’s state-of-the-art rice processing machinery, including a harvest dryer – a rarity in Nigeria – which enables paddy with higher moisture contents to be dried sufficiently to be safely stored, ensuring that none of the crop is wasted. The mill has been up and running for three years now and is the the largest rice production facility in sub-Saharan Africa, with an annual capacity of around 2.5 million 50 kg bags of rice.
Instead of using diesel to produce steam, we are using the back of the rice – which is the husk – to burn and produce steam. This saves us a lot of energy, a lot of time, and a lot of money.
Hassan Oladipupo,
Plant Manager
The fact that rice can be transported to the mill for processing as soon as its harvested gives the product a genuinely “farm fresh” quality, according to Plant Manager Hassan Oladipupo. Not only does the mill enable continuous drying of the rice, it’s also capable of producing steam from the burning of rice husks – cutting waste, improving sustainability and dramatically reducing the plant’s energy costs.
“In terms of drying the rice after parboiling there is also what they call continuous drying, which never happened in Nigeria before,” states Hassan Oladipupo. “It saves a lot of time, it saves a lot of money, and the quality of rice that’s dried is incomparable to other rice mills.”
Bühler sits on top of the food chain in terms of quality, pricing and after-sales service. There are lots of companies that will give you the product but will not have an after-sales service. But Bühler gives us both the quality of product we want, and a good after-sales service.
Dr. Oluwarotimi Fashola,
Special Advisor on Agriculture to the Lagos State Governor
