Tingo Foods’ aim to make Nigeria more self-sufficient

February 11, 2023

MICT announced that it has entered into a transaction giving it ownership 100% of Tingo Foods, a food processing business with capacity to process and wholesale more than US$1 billion of food per year.

Through a joint venture, Tingo Foods has also committed to build and operate a state-of-the-art $1.6 billion food processing facility in the Delta State of Nigeria. With build, fitout and commissioning scheduled for completion by the end of the first half of 2024, the new facility is expected to multiply the size of the company’s processing capacity and revenue.

Tingo Foods’ goal is to reduce Africa’s reliance on the import of food and beverage end products and increase its exports of made-in-Africa produce between countries, which is expected to reduce the prices of finished goods for Africa’s consumers and reducing the current need to export raw food materials outside of the continent.

Tingo Foods has the ability to produce and wholesale processed foods such as rice, millet, pasta and noodles – the new facility is expected to be able to produce a range of products including tea, coffee, chocolate, biscuits, non-dairy milks, cooking oils and others.

A foundation laying ceremony for the processing facility took place, which was attended by representatives of MICT, Tingo Mobile and Tingo Foods, include the CEO of Tingo Foods, Neha Mehta. With the new facility expected to create approximately 12,000 jobs locally, it will provide a ‘strong boost’ to Nigeria’s economy.

“It has long been an ambition of mine to help make Africa self-sufficient, in particular its food consumption requirements,” said Dozy Mmobuosi, Founder of Tingo Mobile and Tingo Foods. “We are extremely proud to be building what we believe to be the largest food processing plant in the continent, which allows us to address the major disadvantage that Africa has suffered historically, from having to export its raw food produce for processing, before then paying inflated prices to bring back finished products. We expect our facility to save Africa’s nations billions of dollars of unnecessary costs, while also making a material impact on reducing the world’s carbon footprint.”

“The support of the Nigerian government, together with the support of the farmers in the countries in which we operate, gives us the foundation to be one of the biggest food providers in the African continent. Our ecosystem from seed to sale is significantly strengthened through Tingo Foods and leaves us very excited about the prospects for MICT shareholders as we move forwards,” Neha added.

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