OLUSEGUN PAUL ANDREW, executive chairman of BlackPace Group, speaks to JOSEPHINE OKOJIE about his organisation’s investments in Nigeria and Rwanda and plans to upscale potato production and processing in both countries.
Can you tell us about BlackPace Group and its investments in Africa’s agribusiness space?
Blackpace Group is domiciled in Switzerland with other sub locations in France, Netherlands and in Africa, we are in Nigeria and Rwanda. Blackpace is an investment advisory firm that is also into asset management and wealth management. We are diversified in our value delivery, and do have investments in the agro-allied sector, energy, real estate and infrastructure.
In the agro-allied sector, we own few assets in farms and processing facilities in some African countries. We have joint venture agreements with the Plateau state government in Nigeria and working on similar framework in Rwanda with the government- which includes the Rwanda development board, Ministry of Agriculture as well as Ministry of Trade and Industry. We have developed various Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) as well as joint development agreements with these institutions, countries and states.
We are focusing on the potato value chain which is our core investment mandate for Africa. We also do other crops such as soybean, maize and barley. In Rwanda we are looking to partner with Heineken to provide starch in form of syrup out of potatoes. In Nigeria, our brand identity is Cros Agro Allied and also using same brand identity in Rwanda.
We recently acquired a potato processing facility to further our value chain investments in Rwanda. We recently brought our Swedish manufacturing partners to look at our facility as part of our upgrading plan. Our strategy is to up-sale the potato chip factory in Rwanda. We would also build a new potato processing factory in our Jos processing site in Nigeria.
In Plateau state, our target is to produce close to 50,000 and 60, 000 tons of frozen French fries, potato flakes and potato chips. In our farms our potatoes will cross-rotate with soybean and maize. In Jos we would set up a processing facility to extract oil from soybean.
The idea for Potato VC is to strengthen our export drive. We have 70 percent export and 30 percent local consumption for both Nigeria and Rwanda. We have also been invited to Mozambique. Kenya is also hot on our plate. We have a kind of continent-wide vision for our potato value chain in Africa. This we hope will further stimulate the economy and create jobs.
Nigeria has huge infrastructural gap, and inadequate storage facility has continued to limit the country’s agricultural potential. What is Blackpace Group doing to reduce the huge post- harvest losses in Nigeria?
We are putting together an Africa agriculture infrastructural fund to drive infrastructural development in the sector. We have been discussing with multilateral and private institutions including the AfDB, KFW Ipex among others. Without infrastructure for agribusiness, we would continue to scratch our agriculture projects on the surface.
We need to go back to the drawing board and look into the infrastructural space that supports agriculture and seek ways to develop them. Infrastructure drives what we are trying to do in Nigeria – in Barkin Ladi, Plateau, which is the processing location of our factory and 15 minutes to the airport.
What we intend doing is to seek ways to increase cargo flights that would pick processed goods to specific locations in Nigeria, especially in the South West. We are also discussing partnership with the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL) to put up a cold storage facility for the frozen French fries that would be exported out of Nigeria.
The infrastructural deficit experience is why we are putting this fund together and discussing this with Afican Development Bank (AfDB), which is lending a strong support. We are also discussing with the KFW bank, a German bank and Afrexim Bank. They are working with us on the potato value chain.
For storage facilities, we are looking at establishing six cold storage facilities in Nigeria which will support the potato business and other perishable commodities. Logistics would also be looked into, be it land, rail and air.
When does Blackpace Group and AfDB plan to launch the infrastructural fund?
We are as good as done but just waiting for the Plateau state government to put things in order. The state government just informed me that they are granting us 3,061 hectares which is their own contribution to the joint venture.
Out of the land, 11 hectares will be used for processing and 3,000 will be for potato farming. We intend to get out-growers to contract farming and see other ways we can create jobs for the youths and train them to the same mechanism of potato farming which gives good return on investment. We would train and teach our farmers good farming practices which will help increase their yields per hectare which is currently between 2 and 4 tons.
In Rwandan we are doing between 30 and 40 tons per hectare, yield is higher, may be because of the geographical location and the soil is very good. Rwandan has the same blight related problems like Plateau state but they have a better way of cultivating their potato. We intend to bring that knowledge, expertise and skills set to Nigeria to optimise the yields to 25 and 30 tons per hectare.
Apart for training farmers on good practices, is there any partnership of your organisation with the Root and Tuber Research Institute of Nigeria on improving potato seeds for farmers?
We just concluded our agreement with the International Potato Centre (CIP) based in Lima, Peru. Our agreement is both technical and scientific cooperation to increase yields. We have access to various seed varieties that would be tested in Nigeria with the help of the seed council and other agriculture agencies. We are the only private institution that has instituted that agreement with CIP.
Also, we would work with the national root and tuber research institute. What we do not want is to import seeds into the country which is quiet expensive. So with our agreement with CIP, we are putting in place a tissue culture laboratory from part of the remaining 50 hectares, where we would do seed multiplication with the technology from CIP.
We have all the skill-sets to address the issues of seed. New varieties will be tested and we are going to introduce more seeds to Nigeria. The quality of seed will help us address the challenge of processing site. There are some special seeds that go with the French fries. For flakes, you can use any variety.
Blight disease has been a big challenge to potato farming in Nigeria and the whole of Africa. What is your organisation doing to address this?
We intend to address the issues of pest and diseases through technical and scientific partnership with CIP primarily. We intend to attack the challenge from an investment point of view. Blight is a disease that is hugely dependent on the wet season. Movement of the disease is mostly through rain. So during raining season, the infested land spread rapidly. What we have done to protect our investments is to do dry season farming. Re-working the lands that are affected by the blight related disease involves planting other crops for about five years, which would help revitalise the soil with the use of appropriate pest control measures.
What is the value of Nigeria’s potato chips industry?
Our potato chip industry in Nigeria is about $20 million from the data we have and they are all imported because there is no local potato processor in the country currently.
What are the opportunities in Nigeria’s potato industry?
The opportunities are massive. Our annual yield is still below 1 million tons despite the vast land we possess. If Plateau state alone can upscale their production, they can earn $1billion annually from potato production. But for lack of vision, the state is yet to take that part of their wealth seriously. We have the Irish and the sweet potato varieties in Nigeria. The sweet is grown in the south, east, west and the north. But Irish only grows in areas of temperate regions such as Plateau, Katsina, Kaduna and the Mambila in Taraba State.
Can you talk about some of the challenges in the country’s potato value chain and agribusiness in general?
Speaking with most of the local banks, we realise that most of them do not understand the investment space in most agriculture related projects. For us in the potato segment, we have been trying to enlighten them, just like we did with Afrexim bank.
We already have $25 million worth of debt from both Afrexim and KFW bank which we are trying to complete for the plateau state project. We are working with local banks on the transaction and most of them do not have the capacity to provide an “A” rated bank guarantee.. Even the CBN support; I can tell you that most of the funds disbursed are miss-appropriated by those that have accessed them because they do not understand the structural components of disbursing to actual farmers/individuals accessing the funds.. My advice to the CBN is to talk to experts within the agric investment space.
Similarly, we have been talking with NIRSAL. We have been looking at different funding schemes for farmers across board. Also, we intend to create a window for export, majorly for the potato industry. NIRSAL is ready to give us a credit guarantee similar to that given to us by the Swedish government. The Swedish government guaranteed 85 percent of our loans on all the equipment coming in from Europe. The government of Nigeria should do something similar to encourage investment in the sector.
What is the value of investment made by Blackpace group invested in Africa and Nigeria so far?
For Nigeria and our potato value chain in Plateau we are trying to scale our investments on a phase by phase basis. So our initial investment coming into Plateau is $60 million. This amount will cover both our 3,061 hectares for farming and processing facilities. The processing is not just one line. We are doing 5000kg an hour of frozen French fries and flakes and we are doing 1000kg per hour of potato chips. That is massive. So, the first phase of investment that is approved by the relevant institutions is captured under $60 million
For Rwanda, we are going to apply the same strategy. We are putting in $120 million in Rwanda because they have a vibrant potato industry. Their yields are higher; hence, we can do a lot more. Their farmers are also well organised.
There should be more focus on investments in the agriculture sector. The Nigerian banking industry is currently clueless on investments in the sector.
