Aliko Dangote’s processing plant is barely running as farmers struggle to get loans to boost production
Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote is barely managing to operate Africa’s biggest tomato processing plant, six years after the factory began production, because he can’t get enough berries to crush.
The crisis at Dangote’s tomato plant is emblematic of the challenges faced by many businesses in Africa’s biggest economy. While tomato farming employs about 200,000 people, banks balk at lending to farmers despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s focus on boosting local production. Such policy missteps, entrenched corruption and ethnic tensions are discouraging investment needed to add jobs in a nation that has one of the world’s highest unemployment rates.
The Dangote plant was to help Africa’s most populous nation cut 300,000 tonnes of tomato-paste imports from China by using about 900,000 tonne of tomatoes lost after harvest every year for lack of storage and processing facilities. But farmers have not been able to supply the factory with the volumes needed to run at capacity.
Meanwhile, tomato farmers can’t get enough credit to boost output as banks are reluctant to lend for agricultural activities. Tillers have also been harangued by armed marauders and kidnappers.
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