Northern Nigeria Four Mills (NNFM), one of the largest food processing plant in Nigeria, says it has concluded plans to source about 30,000 metric tons of Sorghum through an out-grower partnership scheme with local farmers for it new production line in Kano.
According to the company, thousands of farmers across the Sorghum growing belt of the country are being engaged in the sourcing of the commodity, to keep the plant afloat this year.
John Coumantaros, chairman, board of director of the company, who made this disclosure, while speaking with journalists at the end of the company`s 45th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in the commercial city of Kano.
He expressed optimism that the company’s latest investment in a new production line would impact tremendously the earnings of the company, as well as in employment generation for thousands of Nigeria along the value-chain.
“I wish to recall that in reaction to the economic realities which began in 2015, our company temporarily suspended the milling of imported wheat and took a strategic decision to realign and diversify the company’s operations to include the milling of Sorghum which is available in abundance in many states of the North.”
“Our plan is to continue this new business in addition to the milling of maize. The newly commissioned mill will position NNFM as Flour Mill`s group hub for local content processing and local wheat collection with great value addition and we plan to add multi-grain blending facilities in the near future” he explained.
Mean-while, the performance of the company in out-gone business year, indicated in the chairman`s financial statement shows that it recorded a loss of N16.234 million as against 197.24 recorded in March 2016.
In the same vein, it was also observed that the total turnover of the company when compared with the corresponding period of last year also when down by 4%.
In the chairman’s statement, the company noted that the socioeconomic environment which it operated under in the out-gone year was responsible for the decrease in the overall performance.
“The Nigerian economy was officially reported to have slipped into recession during 2016 and this development created many difficulties and challenges which included: the decline in external reserves; acute scarcity of foreign exchange; a significant fall in the exchange value of the Naira vis-à-vis the Dollar; dwindling government revenues; high inflation and a decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) among others.
“These aforementioned external and domestic factors created monumental challenges for many Nigerian businesses particularly those operating in the manufacturing sector.
“The industry had to grapple with the problems of poor road infrastructure, power generation, transportation and provision of adequate security. Other problems faced by manufacturers included high cost of borrowing, volatile exchange rates, weak effective demand and low capacity utilization” the company further disclosed.
The Northern Nigeria Flour Mills Plc was incorporated as a private limited liability company on 29th October 1971. The company was converted into a public limited liability company in 1978 and was quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in the same year.
