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President Muhammadu Buhari has said developments in the Nigerian fertilizer value chain is moving the country to becoming a regional and global fertilizer powerhouse.
He attributed Nigeria’s rising prominence to the implementation of the “right policies” by his administration, which has given birth to over seventy active blending plants in the country.
In a statement by Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, the president said Nigeria is definitely a “global player” in the Urea space.
‘‘With our over seventy blending plants operating, Nigeria is on its way to becoming Africa’s fertiliser powerhouse. And with our mega Urea production facilities, Nigeria is definitely a global player in the Urea space,’’ the president was quoted to have said at an audience with the Executive Committee of Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to the statement, Mr Buhari noted that this remarkable achievement, in a very short period of time, had ensured a steady flow of investments to the sector from the private sector; bringing prosperity to millions of Nigerians and good returns to the investors.
The president expressed delight that the era of persistent shortage of fertiliser in the country is now a thing of the past, commending FEPSAN for partnering with the Government in the very patriotic backward integration project of enhancing the agricultural value chain.
‘‘When this administration came to office in 2015, our focus was on three key areas; Security, Economy and tackling corruption. For every nation to have peace and prosperity, its economy must be inclusive,” the statement quoted the president to have said.
He said,‘‘For Nigeria, a predominantly agrarian nation, having an inclusive economy meant we needed to prioritise the enhancement of our agricultural value chain.”
Based on this, the president said, ‘‘We quickly identified the persistent shortage of fertilizer as a key reason for the low yields experienced in our farms.”
‘‘This historical scarcity of fertiliser was due to our over reliance on imports and the inefficient participation of the Government in distributing this essential commodity to the farmers. As a government, it was very clear to us that these practices needed to change. Nigeria is naturally blessed with most of the raw materials needed to produce fertilisers,” Mr Buhari said.
He explained that Nigeria has all the skills and manpower required to convert these raw materials to fertilisers and that with the right enabling environment, Nigeria has the entrepreneurs who are ready to invest in the sector.
‘‘So we went to work. And as the Chairman of FEPSAN mentioned in his remarks, the rest is now history,’’ he said.
According to the statement, the president noted that a key indicator of the present government’s successful policies is the fact that the country had no shortages of fertilizers during the global COVID lockdowns.
‘‘Today, I am pleased to hear your assurances that we will not have any shortages in Nigeria because of the Eastern European conflicts that have impacted the global fertilizer trade. All these trends indicate our backward integration policy was the right policy,’’ he said.
In his remarks, CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said fertiliser remains a key input to achieving food security and that in realisation of this, the apex bank has continued to place great importance on its availability and accessibility by farmers to improve yield, productivity and ultimately, output.
He said over N114.09bn has been disbursed to support the fertiliser industry in the last five years.
Mr Emefiele explained that the interventions were long-term loans at concessionary interest rates to support domestic blending and distribution across the country.
Given the massive funding support received by FEPSAN members from the CBN, the apex bank governor announced that the bank is working with majors in the industry, such as Dangote and Indorama, to ensure that they sell Urea at discounted prices to the blending plants to ensure that the prices of fertilizer are moderated in the market.
‘‘The Bank will equally work with the blending plants to ensure that the blended fertilisers are made available to end-user farmers at affordable prices,’’ he said.
Anchor Borrowers’ Programme
On CBN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, Mr Emefiele said the Bank has disbursed N941.26bn to 4.2million smallholder farmers cultivating 21 agricultural commodities on 5.4 million hectares of land across the country.
He added that for the 2021 wet season programme, the CBN disbursed N193.59bn to 923,699 farmers cultivating seven commodities on 1.16 million hectares of land.
READ ALSO:Dangote fertilizer plant to export to U.S., India, Brazil – Buhari
According to the statement, Mr Emefiele noted that the CBN currently has a balance of stock of fertiliser from the last planting season under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme to the tune of 1.95 million bags and have committed additional 2.6 million bags for use during the 2022 programme.
Also speaking, FEPSAN president, Thomas Etuh appreciated President Buhari for commissioning two facilities by members of the association- Barbados blending plant in Kaduna and the Dangote Urea plant in Lagos- within two months.
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‘‘Mr President, FEPSAN’s success is not only evident by the number of factories we commission, but also by the many pyramids of rice, maize and other crops you have been inspecting across the country, he said.
He said, ‘‘Mr President, before you created the PFI Initiative in 2016, Nigeria’s fertiliser production base was almost zero. We had less than 7 companies producing at 10 per cent of their installed capacity. Nigeria’s Urea output was reported at less than 300,000 tons.’’
Citing recent data from a fertiliser working group that reviews and validates consumption data spanning over 12 years, the FEPSAN president said Nigeria recorded its highest consumption of fertilisers at 1.8 million tons per annum in 2021.
He, therefore, assured Nigerians that the association is ready, willing and available to ensure that fertilisers are available in all parts of the country for the 2022 wet season.
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