Investing in cornflakes,chips production

Nigeria is one of the leading countries in maize production in Africa. It produces million tons every year, which makes the products available for investors to process and package for local consumption and export.

Cornflake is a fast food enjoyed in almost all homes in Nigeria. It can be prepared with hot or cold water and milk.

Other raw materials include sugar solution, malt and salt. These are also in abundance in the country.

From records, a good quantity of this farm produce is wasted during harvest as a result of inadequate storage facilities. This challenge can, however, be checked if investors provide silos to store the produce when in season.

From studies, there are only two known companies producing cornflakes in Nigeria and their outputs are very small to meet the increasing demand. This gap provides opportunities for small-scale investors to come in and boost supply.

To set up this project, boilers, separators, sifter, mixer, granulators, rotary oven tanks, silos, screening and cooling equipment are essential.

These machines could be sourced locally or got abroad depending on the financial strength of the investor.

A medium plant is capable of processing up to five metric tons of corn/maize in a shift of eight hours, producing about three tons of cornflakes in a shift. This machine can be operated in a double shift of eight hours per day throughout the year.

The production process is simple and involves storing maize in the silos, cleaning and grinding, mixing up with other ingredients such as sugar, malt, salt and drying the products with a rotary drying oven.
After drying, the product is allowed to cool and then packaged.

This project can be set up in any part of the country since maize (corn) is grown in all parts of Nigeria.

From preliminary feasibility, investors can start with an N8.0million kickoff capital. And based on investment analysis, a turnover of N15.0million is achievable in the first year working on average of 250 working days in a year. The payback period is within two years, while returns on investment are over 56 per cent.

Details including production technology, process flow, size and structure of local and ECOWAS sub-region markets and effective marketing strategies to be adopted are all available.

• For enquiries contact: Godwin, 08034494437. E-mail: ubagodwin@yahoo.com