From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
Diva Rice, the first rice mill factory built at the cost of N450 million, has commenced production of polished rice in Imo State.
The factory located at Umuabiahu community, Mgbidi in Oru West council of the state, currently produces 300 bags of 50kg rice per day.
Managing Director/Chief Executive officer of Diva Trading World Services, Ifeyinwa Nnanna-Mbah, disclosed this during a press conference at the weekend.
Mbah, an indigene of Oru West, said she decided to invest in the mill because of the high demand of rice in the state and to create employment opportunities for youths.
“Initially, I used to produce my rice in the Middle Belt but on a second thought, I decided to set a factory in Imo State since there is no rice mill there. Today, this is the result of that decision that I took early last year. This factory cost over N450 million to establish because all the machineries were imported from China and we are still spending because we operate on diesel for 24 hours as we don’t have stable electricity power supply,” she said.
Mbah called on the state government to assist in the provision of accessible road and electricity supply to reduce the company’s production cost.