(Business in Cameroon) - The National Investment Corporation of Cameroon (SNI) is currently looking for a firm to take care of feseability studies for a corn processing plant in Ntui, the Central region. In that regard, today August 24, the corporation issued a call for expression of interest asking interested parties to submit their offers.

The project consists of the development of cornfields, the production of improved seeds as well as the construction of a processing plant for corn grits and popcorn production. With that project, the SNI will not only boost its project portfolio but will also contribute to an increase in the local production of corn derivatives including grits, whose current volume is insufficient to meet the demand of local brewing companies.

Above all, the SNI’s project will facilitate another corn by-product production project carried out by SABC, leader of the local brewing market, that is supposed to inaugurate a corn grits production plant in September 2021. With a 30,000 tons yearly production capacity, the plant is located in Mbankomo, some twenty kilometers from Yaoundé. It costs XAF18 billion and thanks to it, SABC will end its corn grits imports by complementing its production with the additional 10,000 grits it buys yearly from MAISCAM, based in North Cameroon.

To be able to produce the 30,000 tons of corn grits, the plant will need about 60,000 tons of corn from local farmers (supported by the SABC). Hence the interest of the SNI’s project that will provide improved corn seeds.

Brice R. Mbodiam