First multi-million rice mill commences operation in Imo
The factory, which is located at Umuabiahu community Mgbidi in Oru West council, currently produces 300 bags of 50kg of Diva rice per day.
The Managing Director/ Chief Executive of Diva Trading World Services, Dr. Ifeyinwa Nnanna – Mbah, who disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Owerri at the weekend said the factory cost over N450 million to establish.
Dr Mbah, an indigene of Oru West, said that she decided to invest in the Rice Mills factory which is the first in the state because of the high demand of rice in the state, as well as to create employment opportunities for teeming unemployed youths.
She also disclosed the company in October 2020 started the test running of the installed machines and had commenced full operations in November.
According to her: “initially I used to produce my rice in the Middle Belt but on a second thought, I decided to set up a factory in Imo State since there is no Rice mill there. Today this is the result of that decision that I took early last year.
Continuing, she said: “This factory cost over N450 million to establish because all the machinery were imported from China and we are still spending because we operate on diesel for 24 hours as we don’t have electricity.”
She also disclosed that the company is already discussing with its Chinese partners to expand its current 300 bags of 50kg per day to 1, 500 bags of 50kg per day because of the high demand for Diva Rice .
“We are already planning to expand our current production capacity of 300 to 1,500kg bags per day because of the high demand of our DIVA rice brand because our Rice is purely made in Nigeria and it is natural and no chemicals.”
However, Dr Mbah called on the state government to assist in the provision of accessible road and power supply to reduce its production cost as it would encourage investors to invest in the State.”
