The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved N10.7 billion for the establishment of 10 rice mills in 10 states.

The Minister of State for Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri, while briefing State House reporters, said this was to enhance the milling capacity of rice value chain in the country.

He said the rice mills would be located in Kebbi, Zamfara, Benue, Kogi, Bayelsa, Anambra, Kaduna, Niger, Ogun and Bauchi States.

The minister described the mills as very large, putting their capacity at 100 tons each per day.

He said the mills would be given to the private sector to manage "which will be paid back within a given time frame as will be agreed between the Bank of Agriculture and the rice mills."

"A few years ago, it was reported that this country needs a minimum of 100 large mills. As at today, we have about 21, but the Federal Government, in its wisdom, decided that today (Wednesday), we should approve the establishment of 19 new rice mills at the total cost of N10.7 billion," he said.

Text (excluding headline) culled from Dailytrust