(Ecofin Agency) - In Nigeria, the Government of Ebonyi state on Friday said it has borrowed a total of N10billion ($28.9 million) from the Federal Government. This is aimed at financing agricultural activities in the state.

According to the Governor of the State, David Umahi (photo), the credit would be used to support farmers and the production of rice locally. In this framework, it would establish mega rice cities in various local government areas of the state to boost rice production.

“We borrowed N2billion, we will be paying off in the next 3 months, of course we borrowed another N5 billion and another N3 billion. We want to domesticate rice production in Ebonyi State and we are going beyond individual production. We are now beginning to see how we can institute what we call rice mega cities in each local government area where we have 5,000 hectares of land dedicated for rice production in each of our local government areas,” he said.

Speaking further on production, Umahi said the state is planning to cultivate 100,000 hectares of land to produce 400,000 tonnes of rice in the next two years. He added that Ebonyi already has 4 rice mills that are in operation and imported another 3 “which we will install in the next 3 to 4 months and our idea is that before the middle of next year, we will be able to have one rice mill in each local government area.”

Anita Fatunji