Description

Cassava is one of the most important root crops in Nigeria. Apart from being a staple crop in both rural and urban house-holds cassava is a major source of income to cassava farmers and processors in the rural areas.

Nigeria is currently the world leading producer of cassava, producing about forty million {40,000,000} MT per annum and cassava alone contributes about 5 % of agricultural GDP in Nigeria for food or domestic purposes but its industrial processing and utilization has been very limited.

Since the return to civil rule in 1999, Nigeria has witnessed steady but minimal growth of the middle class. These growths continues to drive the increasing social and health awareness of the need for hygienically well prepared foods required for good quality living standard of people.

This coupled with the geometrically exploding population and continued rural-urban drift continues to fuel the demand for cassava starch, flour and Garri, a staple food in the country.

This report is to examine the financial viability or otherwise of establishing a multi-purpose cassava processing plant in Nigeria processing cassava tubers to produce cassava starch, cassava flour and Garri.

The business would involve the sourcing and transportation of the major raw material {Cassava Tubers} to the proposed processing plant, after which the product is processed and packaged for sale in the local market.

It has been established through research that cassava starch has a lot of demand in the textile, oil drilling, pharmaceuticals, and food/beverage industries while High Quality Cassava Flour {HQCF} is used as substitute for wheat flour in bakery and confectionary.

Garri, a product gotten from the processing of cassava tubers is a very important staple food item in Nigeria. It is one of the food items that defy socio-economic class, religious and ethnic boundaries, it is doubtful if it is not eaten daily in one of every two homes in the country.