Nigeria Staves Off Food Crisis By Hiking Fertilizer Exports From $2.5B Plant

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday inaugurated a $2.5 billion fertilizer plant with which Africa’s most populous country hopes to contribute to the global supply amid the impact of increasing prices in the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine war, Chinedu Asadu reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: The commissioning of the Dangote Fertilizer Plant by President Muhammadu Buhari where over 3million tonnes of urea fertilizer will be produced per annum.

“Nigeria’s dependence on imported products in the agriculture sector will soon be a thing of the past,” the Nigerian leader said during the inauguration in Lagos, the commercial capital, of expectations from the Dangote Fertilizer Plant, in addition to other agricultural initiatives including incentives to farmers.

With the global fertilizer market jolted, Nigeria Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele said the inauguration of the plant is timely as it has “helped Nigeria to solve a perennial fertilizer problem.”

Agriculture is a lifeline for Nigeria’s economy, contributing 25.8% of its 72.3 trillion naira gross domestic product in 2021. However, farmers are sometimes constrained with limited supplies such as fertilizer and improved seedlings.

With the new fertilizer plant with a capacity of 3 million metric tons annually, Nigeria expects “a boom as fertilizer is now readily available in greater quantities and better quality,” said Buhari. “We expect the rise of a new breed of agropreneurs who will add value to farming and make the nation self-sufficient in food production,” he said, inviting many Nigerians to “now take up agriculture as a business.”

Fertilizer from the plant located in an industrial zone in Lagos will be exported to many countries including the US, Brazil, India, and Mexico, said Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man and owner of the plant, amid shock waves from Russia, where an ongoing war with Ukraine has disrupted supplies.

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