Lagos, Kebbi govs officially launch ‘Lake Rice’
Lagos state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, and his Kebbi state counterpart, Atiku Bagudu, on Wednesday officially launched ‘Lake Rice’ to be sold to the public at the cost of N12, 000 per 50kg bag.
Speaking at the launch ceremony held at the State House, Ikeja, Ambode described the event as historic as the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two states in March 2016 had begun to yield the needed fruit.
“We signed MOU in March 2016 with an understanding that we being proudly Nigeria, we want to come out with what is made in Nigeria and what is good for Nigerians. We took all that Buhari said that we needed to grow our food and we decided that we will prove a point and that is what is all about today,” Ambode said.
According to him, the Lake Rice was grown and milled in Nigeria with extreme high quality, adding “we have Ofada and imported rice and we want to show our people that Lake Rice is the way to go. The major different between Lake Rice and imported, is that imported rice has a minimum storage capacity of between five and six years but Lake Rice is fresh.”
The governor hinted that the state would expand its rice mill as Lagos has the largest consumption market in Nigeria.
He said that since this was the yuletide period when consumption of rice was highest, government had decided to sell each 50 kilogramme bag of Lake Rice for N12, 000; 25kg bag for N6, 000 and 10kg bag for N2, 500, adding that the rice would be on sale as from Thursday, December 22, in about 10 different locations across the state.
The governor said that one needed to get a ticket from the location to pay for a bag of rice in the bank before coming back for collection, explaining that this was done to allow the rice go round everybody.
“We want to ensure that this rice goes to everybody. You cannot buy twice,” he said, while thanking the Minister of Agriculture for his support to the state government by promising to donate two rice mills to Lagos next year.
Also speaking at the event, Bagudu said 16 months ago during the National Executive Council meeting in Abuja; he entered into a discussion with Ambode for a joint partnership for the production of rice in view of what was happening in the country.
“We agreed that we should showcase our belief in Nigeria and our people and our commitment to the agenda of making Nigeria a big market in Africa. Kebbi State has comparative advantage in area of rice production. Since then, we have been working assiduously on this after we signed a MOU,” he said.
He said the product could stand any integrity test in Nigeria as the rice was of high quality, adding that Lake Rice had a unique quality different from other rice in the country.
“Our rice is of quality. I am proud of this joint venture, we can do more, we are glad that we are launching Lake Rice today,” he said.
