Julius Berger goes into agric business as Nigerian govt turns attention to Chinese firm

For many years, the name Julius Berger was synonymous with road building in Nigeria, but as the Federal government switched to China, the company has decided to add agriculture to its business portfolio.

The decision from Nigeria’s biggest builder also stemmed from the general weak recovery in the construction sector since 2016.

Julius Berger marketing manager Oyindamola Asaaju on Tuesday at a media parley revealed that the company’s new focus would be on Cashew Nut processing.

According to the company, cashew nut processing was an untapped potential in the market that could fetch Nigeria huge foreign exchange.

It noted that Nigeria was the sixth-largest cashew producer in the world and the main grower in Africa, which accounts for more than half of global production but only 5% of output is processed locally.

Read also: Julius Berger’s Cecilia Madueke conducts insider trading near closed period

A cashew processing plant will be commissioned in Lagos and to attend to the strong demand from the European Union, Japan, Canada and the United Arab Emirates.

In recent years, the Nigerian government has used the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation Ltd (CCECC) to build key highways around the nation as part of an arrangement for some of the loans issued to Nigeria.

According to data from the Debt Management Office (DMO) some of the construction carried out by CCECC include Nigeria Rehabilitation and Upgrading of Abuja – Keffi – Markurdi Road Project, Nigerian Four Airport Terminal Expansion Project (Abuja, Kano, Lagos & Port Harcourt).

Others are Nigerian Railway Mordernization Project (Lagos – Ibadan section) and also the Lagos Badagry expressway project.

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