President Muhammadu Buhari officially opened the new, state-of-the-art Dangote Fertilizer Urea Plant yesterday, with a 3 million metric ton capacity per year. He made it clear that the project would greatly boost Nigeria’s agricultural sector, whose revitalization has been a key component of his administration’s economic strategy.
The new factory is situated at Ibeju Lekki, Lagos Free Trade Zone, on the outskirts of the Dangote refinery. He commissioned it in front of about eighteen governors, ministers, captains of industries, and notable traditional leaders.
An obviously thrilled According to President Buhari, the plant’s imminent completion will open up a plethora of job, trade, warehousing, transportation, and logistics prospects. The Plant, as stated by the President “will greatly create wealth, drastically reduce poverty and secure the future of our nation”.
“With fertiliser now easily accessible, we anticipate a boom in the agricultural sector, another key area of our economic policy,” he stated. Due to the lack of essential inputs, many Nigerians who formerly engaged in subsistence farming are now able to pursue agriculture as a business. We anticipate the emergence of a new generation of agropreneurs who will enhance farming and enable the country to produce its own food.
He asserted that the federal government is now more committed than ever to creating an environment that encourages private sector investment and that his administration would keep enhancing security, power, and infrastructure while passing pertinent laws and regulations to encourage economic investment.
According to President Buhari, the government’s efforts in this area included working with the private sector through a tax credit program to repair roads throughout Nigeria in accordance with Presidential Order No. 7.
Good roads, as we all know, make it easier to transfer goods and services across the country, which lowers operating costs and boosts productivity. In order to reduce traffic on our highways and provide more efficient multi-model transportation networks, we are also renovating our existing railway lines and constructing new ones,” he continued.
Aliko Dangote, the president of the Dangote Group, called the new facility a game changer in a previous welcome speech because it might enable Nigeria to produce enough fertilizer on its own and have extra capacity to export to other African and international markets. Dangote fertilizer has already made its way to the markets in the United States, Brazil, and Mexico, he continued.
He claims that the fertilizer plant, which is the biggest granulated urea fertilizer complex in Africa, was constructed at a cost of $2.5 billion, covers 500 hectares of land, and is anticipated to significantly lower the nation’s unemployment and youth unrest rates by creating job opportunities. With premium fertilizer, he believes the plant will create additional jobs.
He said that 20% of the country’s GDP comes from agriculture and that the new factory was an ambitious initiative that would reduce youth restlessness by creating direct and indirect jobs.
He said that Dangote Fertilizer will guarantee the country’s farmer population’s growth, creating hundreds of employment and bringing in a new generation of agricultural entrepreneurs, or agroprenuers. “This generation of agropreneurs will engage in large-scale farming, supplying our industries with raw materials and food,” he continued.
According to Dangote, the fertilizer company is introducing technologies that will revolutionize the agriculture industry by providing small and medium-sized farmers with extension services. It has established a fully furnished laboratory for analyzing fertilizer soil so that it can analyze and identify soil deficiency and the appropriate fertiliser blend.
Applying the appropriate fertilizer to the soil has been demonstrated in studies to increase productivity. This service, which will cover all geopolitical zones, would undoubtedly alter the nation’s agricultural landscape by turning farming into a profitable career.
He clarified, “Dangote Fertilizer is collaborating with State Governments, Farmer Associations, Corporate Farmers, NPK Blenders, NGO/development partners, and governments throughout Africa and beyond who are seeking a sustainable approach to enhancing soil quality and farm yields.”
Speaking at the event, Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, stated that Nigeria owes Aliko Dangote a debt of gratitude for his enormous contribution to the country’s economy. He asserts that it is admirable that a Nigerian has not only taken the initiative to assist in resolving our ongoing issue of importing fertilizer and other petrochemical products, but has also seized the enormous market opportunity brought about by recent international events.
Emefiele said that the completion of the fertilizer plant is a great example of the objective being realized and praised President Buhari for providing all the support required to implement economic policies that would buck the doldrums.
Given recent global market trends, where wheat, fertilizer, and crude oil prices surged by more than 20% at the commencement of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the CBN governor characterized the fertilizer facility as timely.
“In addition to the lessons we learned from the protectionist measures taken by nations in the early stages of COVID-19, this investment is once more a clear indication of Mr. President’s vision and unwavering efforts to promote domestic production of goods that can be produced in Nigeria, particularly in the agricultural sector. In addition to increasing our agricultural sector’s production, this would shield Nigerian farmers from relying on imported fertilizer, Emefiele said.
He remembered that Nigeria had a fertilizer shortage of roughly 3.5 million tonnes annually previous to President Buhari’s return to office in 2015, as opposed to the more than 6 million tonnes needed annually.
President Buhari then tasked them with tackling this issue and launched the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative. The nation nonetheless suffered a severe shortage of fertilizer supplies despite the persistent efforts of other domestic enterprises like Indorama and Notore, who together have a capacity of over 2.5 million tons annually, to meet market demand. Nigeria is currently the major producer of urea on the African continent and is self-sufficient in this regard,” he continued.
Dr. Mahmood Abubakar, the Minister of Agriculture, urged other investors to step up, pointing out that the Dangote Fertilizer will aid in resolving Nigeria’s fertilizer scarcity issue. Additionally, he promised that the government will uphold industry standards to maintain quality.
Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos state, praised Alhaji Aliko Dangote for continuously breaking new ground and said the Lagos state government was honored to host many of his companies. He went on to say that “no one would not be proud of Alhaji Dangote with the largest refinery in the world coming soon and the largest fertilizer plant in Africa in Lagos.”
The governor claimed that if another businessman like Dangote could be established in other parts of Nigeria, Nigeria would soon forget its numerous economic woes.
Sanwo-Olu added that private investors could always rely on the Lagos State administration to provide an atmosphere that would allow businesses to prosper.
