Investment Opportunities in Kwara State

Kwara State Government provided incentives and a generally conducive environment to investment when Dangote made the decision to invest. The chief reasons cited by the company for the original decision to locate its plant in Kwara were:
* Nearness to raw materials
* Conducive enabling environment
* Government support and encouragement
* Provision of adequate infrastructure such as land, water, good roads and electricity
* Availability of market for the finished products.
Olam Nigeria
Olam Nigeria Ltd has a significant presence in Kwara State and constitutes an important partner in the state’s drive towards industrialization and food self-sufficiency. Olam Nigeria is a subsidiary of the Singapore based Olam International, an agricultural products and food ingredients multinational with 8000 employees in 56 countries. Through the Olam Company, Kwara is connected to a distribution network of more than 4000 customers in 60 markets around the world.
In Kwara, Olam has established a cashew-processing plant at Ogbondoroko which produces exclusively for the export market. At least 5000 local farmers are involved in harvesting the raw product, which the company then purchases for beneficiation.
Plans to increase rice production in Kwara and Nigeria received a big boost with the opening of Olam’s 40,000.metric-tonne capacity rice processing factory at patigi in late 2009.
Olam declared that it wanted to produce more than 20 000 metric tonnes of rice per year by 2010, from its facilities scattered throughout Nigeria.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has a stated aim of making the country self sufficient in the production of rice and the establishment of rice-processing factories is clearly an important part of that process.
The federal government has a Rice Intervention Fund Scheme and Kwara State is one of the chosen sites for the roll-out of this programme.