Abuja – Nigeria, The Executive Governor of Edo State, His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki, has disclosed that the focus of his administration on enabling value creation is to attract investors into the oil palm and cassava high value Consumer-Packaged Goods (CPG) value chains. This was made known in a virtual meeting with high-ranking U.S. government officials and agribusiness investors on Tuesday January 19, 2021, the Eve of the Inauguration of US President-Elect, Joe Biden and Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris. The US Government Delegation led by Her Excellency, Ambassador Leonard, included U.S. Consul General Claire Pierangelo, Richard Michaels, U.S. Embassy Economic Officer and Brandon Hudspeth, U.S. Embassy Political Officer.
Governor Obaseki said that the efforts of his first term in office shifted from lamentation to getting the job done by instituting the framework for Edo State Oil Palm Programme (ESOPP) in support of oil palm value chain development in the state. He said, “at the sub-national tier of government, we focus on moving from lamenting to executing.” According to the Governor, “This paradigm shift in the establishment of the EDSOPP will now include a move towards renewed focus onCassava Industrialization Programme through land administration and civil service reforms.” The Governor concluded that: “We want to build the capacity of our people to attract private investments in agro-industrialization.”
Obaseki was delighted by the support and commitment of the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Honorable Mary Beth Leonard,who led the US delegation of government officials and private sector investors. US companies, Fayus Inc., an agro-processor and distributor based in Sacramento, California, AfricaGlobalSchaffer (AfGS) and ShineBridge Global (SBG), Louisiana, DC and Virginia based companies committed to investing $43.7 million in industrial food ingredients and CPG cassava value creation, food science and technology knowledge transfer and increased trade and investment inflows between the United States, Nigeria and other ECOWAS countries. Fayus, Inc. plans to invest over $32 million in cassava value creation in Nigeria and an additional $18 million in Ghana and Togo, and has approached the USAID funded West Africa Trade and Investment Hub (WATIH) for support.
Ambassador Leonard commended Governor Obaseki for his expression of interest to attract U.S. agri-business investors in the cassava and oil palm value chains. While appreciating the Governor’s efforts, Ambassador Leonard thanked Fayus, AfGS, SBG and local partners in Nigeria and pledged support to incentivize other US food and agribusiness companies to invest in Africa. The Ambassador said, “Fayus, Inc.’s $43.7 million investment commitment in cassava new food products development serves as an example of synergy of goals in value creation to drive food security, economic diversification and jobs creation under the Prosper Africa Initiative and DFC project financing in support of US-Africa investors.”
The Chairman of Fayus, Inc., Fatai Yusufu said, “we are ready to get the job done in Nigeria and in Edo State.” Mr. Yusuf added that: “Over the next four years, I promise you, we will be milling palm oil in Edo State from our investment in the 5,000 Ha of land recently allocated by Governor Obaseki’sadministration.” Fayus, Inc. is one of six new oil palm investors in Edo State with state-of-the-art nurseries boasting of over 600,000 high-performance seedlings ready for planting in 2021.
Fayus, Inc. is committed to sustainable cassava supply chain infrastructure development and value creation in Nigeria to meet the company’s latent demand of 50,000 MT High-Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) for in-country manufacturing of CPG in Nigeria and export to North American, European, and Australian markets.
In his contribution, the Chairman of Shine Bridge Global Inc., Dr. Tony Bello, said that “the market size of gluten-free and grain-free CPG is estimated at $4.5 Billion by 2025.” Value added HQCF or tapioca flour serves as functional food ingredients for making ready-to-eat consumer new food products.
According to Bello, Fayus, Inc. is the manufacturer of the famous “Ola Ola” brand of poundo yam flour and is expandingthe brand to include Cassava Flour Mixes for making baked goods such as crackers and pizza crusts, snacks, shawarma, noodles, and the likes, to meet the growing demand of gluten-free and grain-free consumer food products in North America and the world.
Dr. Mima Nedelcovych, the Chairman of AfricaGlobal Schaffer(AfGS), an agro-industrial company operating in Africa for over 50 years, as facilitator and co-organizer concluded the meeting by thanking all participants, especially the Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Agriculture and Food Sustainability, Prince Joe Okojie, for enabling the meeting between Governor Obaseki and the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria. He echoed the excitement of Governor Obaseki in attracting U.S. private sector investors to Edo State and Nigeria to get the job done with U.S.government support. He said, “the time of lamentation indeed is over and it’s time to get the job done by leveraging USAID, the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), US Exim Bank, African Export-Import Bank (AfreximBank) and the African Development Bank (AfDB)alongside the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and others.”
AfricaGlobal Schaffer (Washington DC and Baton Rouge, LA-USA) and Shine Bridge Global Inc. (Chesapeake, Virginia-USA), are strategic partners to Fayus, Inc., Fayus Nigeria Limited, Pacific Ring West Africa, Elephant Group Plc., and Von Foods Limited under the Project BOLT initiative on “Industrial Cassava Manufacturing Programme” in Africa, starting from Nigeria. The programme aims to rapidly reach 15 states of Nigeria on large scale commercial cassava production, HQCF processing and CPG manufacturing with planned investments of $250 million up to $500 million.
In closing, Governor Obaseki thanked the facilitator, Dr. Nedelcovych, for his continued support of investment facilitations in Edo State and Nigeria at large. He committed to continued support of Fayus, Inc. investments in Edo State and Nigeria, including the allocation of an additional 5000 Ha of land, while emphasizing the need for human capacity development to engage the people of Edo State.