Deal #3676

It is not clear whether a contract was ever signed, or if the MOU for the joint venture was the only document. The MOU was signed for 10 000ha.

To grow rice in commercial quantity (for local consumption and export market)

The Company and Akwa Ibom state government signed a Memorandum of Understanding on August 7, 2009. The Public Private Partnership Project started having problems of funding when T4M Agritech Nig. Ltd felt it has put a lot of money (N95,596,000.00 from March 2010 to February 2011excluding machinery and equipment brought into the country rice seedling cultivation) into the project and were not having necessary support from AKSG and the other Join Venture partner, the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC). A letter from the company to Governor Godswill Akpabio dated August 17, 2010 complained of “dysfunctional generating sets” and incessant power outage at the abode of the expatriate; non-provision of security escorts to guard the expatriates to and the farm which made them unable to go the farm any longer; threat by Ibiono Community who sought compensation for their land and other unfulfilled MoU agreements by Akwa Ibom state government. In a letter dated August 18, 2011, Ref. AKSMOA11/013/T4M08 addressed to the then Agric Commissioner(Obong Eno Akpan), Trans4Mation Agritech Operations Director lamented that Akwa Ibom State Government did gave them land in Ikot Asidem, Ibiono Ibom local government area but the land was “not fully cleared and accurately secured” which made them commenced operation by hiring land-clearing equipment for the initial clearing of the land. The Company also complained bitterly that the State did not provide all the necessary security for the expatriate and other management staff working on the agribusiness project as agreed in clause 3.04 of the MoU. She stated in the letter that other Joint Venture partner, the NDDC did not also put any money forward nor reimburse expenses incurred on its behalf during the period work was on at Ibiono. The company further complained that the terrain and topography of the land added “hugely to the cost of the land clearing” as over N40m was sunk into clearing about 50 hectares of land for the first few months. The company director said they “were forced out of AKS with great impunity due to the lack of security, failure of AKS and NDDC to meet their obligations under the terms of our MoU especially the provision of land, logistics, accommodation, security and the much needed investor friendly enabling environment. Our team had to be evacuated following a number of attempted kidnapping and other threats on the lives of our expatriate staff and our senior management team in AKS”. It is not clear whether a contract was ever signed, or if the MOU for the joint venture was the only document.

Capacity building was provided to over 100 Akwa Ibom state government indigenes. According to a company director, the rice yield they cultivated for commercial production was good quality and cut cost of about $10m USD which would have been spent to import same rice from Vietnam for commercial cultivation. According to him T4M cleared 60 hectares of land and planted 8 hectares between June and July 2010 with world best hybrid HYVDRV (High Yielding Variety Disease Resistant Variety Seed, harvested over 140 bags of Paddy Rice (50Kg bag) each from 2ha out of the 8 ha planted and harvested. Data source #f94Qa4CD states that production was due to start in 2013, however, all other sources indicate that the project was abandoned by this stage.

Edo State co-operative farmers agency has signed a partnership agreement with transformation Agri-tech limited (T4M) by the Edo state government, to provide farmers with high breed rice with a gestation period of only ninety (90) days. This could be produced thrice a year on the take off in the next planting season. It is not clear whether the contract farming is on or off the lease- it is thought to be off the lease.