BUA to expand food production, target lower prices through new investments — Rabiu

Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, has said the conglomerate is scaling up investments across Nigeria’s food value chain as part of efforts to increase local production, improve food security and help reduce food prices.

Rabiu disclosed this on Wednesday after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, where he said the company also reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the administration’s economic reforms through increased investments and job creation.

Speaking to State House correspondents, the BUA chairman said the company’s ongoing expansion projects, expected to be completed next year, would significantly increase production capacity and position BUA Foods as the country’s largest food business.

He said the expansion covers flour milling, sugar refining, domestic sugar production under the company’s backward integration programme, as well as new investments in edible oil processing, animal feed and noodles manufacturing.

“We are expanding across the food value chain. Once these projects are completed next year, BUA Foods will become the largest food business in Nigeria. With that scale and capacity, we believe we will be able to support lower food prices because increased production remains the most sustainable way to reduce costs,” Rabiu said.

He disclosed that BUA is constructing an oil milling facility in Port Harcourt alongside a feed mill and a noodles manufacturing plant to strengthen domestic food production.

Rabiu described his meeting with President Tinubu as a courtesy visit to express appreciation for the administration’s support for Nigeria’s business environment and to reaffirm the company’s confidence in the country’s economy.

“It was essentially a courtesy visit to pay my respects to His Excellency, the President, and to express appreciation for his support for the business environment in Nigeria.

“We had a warm and cordial discussion, and I used the opportunity to reaffirm BUA’s commitment to investing in Nigeria, creating jobs and supporting the economy across the various sectors in which we operate,” he said.