In line with the Government of Sierra Leone’s effort to promote food security in Sierra Leone, Bengal Agro (SL) Limited, an international company owned by a Bangladesh national, has revealed plans to invest Thirty-Nine Million United States Dollars (US$39,000,000) on Sierra Leone’s agricultural sector, with the sole aim of complementing government’s effort to boost the country’s food security drive.
This was revealed by the company’s Country Director, Mr. Md’Shah Alam. According to him, the company has shown great interest in investing in the production of 100 percent organic crops, processing and marketing ginger, turmeric, rice, maize, groundnut, sesame, caster and rubber in Lunsar, Northern Sierra Leone. He said his company will further invest another US$20 million on the installation of its own processing factory for the food crops and also a processing plant for the rubber plantations in Sierra Leone once it commences operation.
Mr. Alam furthered that, various companies have been producing rubber in Sierra Leone but that this is the first time a rubber processing plant will be installed in the country, adding that, Sierra Leone will be the first country in West Africa to have a rubber processing plant.
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| Country Director, Mr. Md’Shah Alam and Sierra Leone’s Agriculture Minister at the Lunsar site |
This, Mr. Alam went on, will create employment for thousands of Sierra Leoneans, assuring that, his company intends to employ over six thousand people by the end of 2014. He said within a period of three years, the company also hopes to cultivate 4048 hectares of plantation, with hopes for increment in the coming years.
The Country Director said through the above system, cropping cycle will be exploited in order to significantly increase production to meet the growing market demand.
Bengal Agro Limited, he went on, is the African branch of a parent company in Bangladesh called Lalmai Group, which has twenty-four years experience in agribusiness.
After a day’s assessment visit to Bengal’s project site in Lunsar, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security, Dr. Sam Sesay has lauded the project. According to him, the project will bring lots of laurels in the agriculture sector.
He appreciated the initiatives of Bengal in the agriculture sector and further appreciated the fact that the company will help other farmers to learn new technologies in the agriculture sector.
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Newspaper in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
