By Sonia Odita
Founder of Tingo foods, Mr. Dozzy Mmobuosi has made a major move against food insecurity in the country.
The tech icon has inspected the ongoing ultra-modern Tingo Foods Processing Project in Onicha Ugbo, Aniocha North LGA of Delta State with a few to fast-tracking its completion for optimum food production.
The global businessman was joined by the Deputy Governor of Edo State Comrade Philip Shuaibu, Executive of Onicha-Ugbo Progressive Union (OPU) National executive members, top government officials and representative of the agricultural sector to inspect the Food Processing Facility Project situated in agrarian community of Onicha Ugbo, Aniocha North LGA of Delta State.
The facility which covers a total area of 382,600 square meters (38.26 ha), is an agro-industrial complex that will produce a variety of food products including rice, pasta (noodles and spaghetti), beverages, chocolate, biscuits, cooking oils, non-dairy milks, carbonated drinks, mineral water, and more.
This economic infrastructure investment when completed, will serve as a major step forward in addressing the challenges facing the agricultural sector, food insecurity, creating more employment opportunities and trigger sustainable change to the state and country at large.
Recall that the ground breaking of the first of its kind multi-million Tingo Foods Processing factory sited in the agrarian community of Onicha-Ugbo, Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State was done in February, 2023.
The event then was attended by eminent persons in government and industry across Nigeria, including the then minister of Agriculture and rural development, Dr. Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, the monarch of Onicha-Ugbo host community, HRM Obi Chukwumalieze 1, President General of Onicha-Ugbo Patriotic Union, Barr Peter Kogolo and other respected chiefs of the town.
Mmobuosi, an iconic tech guru is making the massive investment as a way of giving back to his birth place, Delta. He has vowed to revolutionise the African Food Industry and create direct employement for the teeming youths in Nigeria, providing a significant boost to the Nigerian economy and contributing to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs aim to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure peace and prosperity for all. The facility’s job creation and wealth creation will help support SDG 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth, and SDG 2, Zero Hunger.
In recent times, the African food processing industry has thrived in snail pace, with low productivity and poor usage of human capital.
Africa’s farmers and agribusinesses could create a trillion-dollar food market by 2030 if they can expand their access to more capital, electricity, better technology and irrigated land to grow high-value nutritious foods, and if African governments can work more closely with agribusinesses to feed the region’s fast-growing urban population, according to a new World Bank report launched recently.
According to the Growing Africa: Unlocking the Potential of Agribusiness report, Africa’s food systems, currently valued at US$313 billion a year from agriculture, could triple if governments and business leaders radically rethink their policies and support to agriculture, farmers, and agribusinesses, which together account for nearly 50 percent of Africa’s economic activity.
