- Ebonyi Builds New Fertilizer Plant as Demand Soars
The Ebonyi State Government has commenced the construction and installation of equipment towards enhancing the production capacity of the Ebonyi Fertilizer and Chemical Company Limited in order to take advantage of the soaring demand for various blends of the NPK fertilizer produced in the country.
Construction work has already reached advanced stages at the new site, located behind the existing plant complex along the Abakaliki-Ogoja highway in the state capital, with the installation of the plants and machinery expected to be completed soon.
When completed, the new plant will add a production capacity of 40 metric tonnes of blended NPK fertilizer per hour to the existing plant built in 2004, and which has a capacity of 32 metric tonnes per hour.
According to a statement from the General Manager, Ebonyi Fertilizer and Chemical Company, Prof. Ogbonnaya Chukwu, the state government, under the leadership of Governor David Umahi, envisioned that the expanded capacity of the plant would place the company in good stead to meet the growing fertilizer needs of the state as well as those of neighbouring South-East and South-South states.
Chukwu, who doubles as the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Investments, commended the Federal Government for the vision behind the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative, saying farmers in the state had benefitted immensely from the programme, making it possible and easy for fertilizer blends to be delivered on time and at affordable prices.
“I think the Ebonyi State Fertilizer and Chemical Company Limited is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative. The intervention by the PFI has helped us to up our game in terms of employment generation and service delivery. Farmers in the state now get very high quality fertilizers early and that was largely responsible for the high volume of rice produced in the state in 2017,” he stated.
He also said that the company, which produces the different blends of the multi-nutrient NPK fertilizer, had also made it possible for farmers in neighbouring states of Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Delta and Cross River to purchase the appropriate fertilizer blends relevant for different crop types, adding that with the new plant, scarcity of fertilizer in many of the South-East and South-South states would be a thing of the past.
He added that the PFI had also been critical to the revival of the old plant built by the state in 2004, saying it was through the initiative that all the disused equipment in the hitherto moribund plant were sourced and replaced at much more affordable costs.
“By the time we were about to start last year, we realised that the conveyor chain on our old plant had been broken and it had not been replaced since 2004. That replacement was made possible by the fact that we participated in the PFI. And through the help of some members of FEPSAN, it was possible to achieve that at a significantly lower cost,” Chukwu said.
He thanked the governor for his vision in keying into the PFI, saying farmers in the state have had no reason to complain of non-availability or high cost of fertilizer since the plant was revived early in 2017.
Chukwu said Umahi had designed a scheme that ensured that fertilizers produced in the plant were distributed to all the wards in the state to reduce the transportation costs for both large and small unit farmers, and that every farmer gets fertilizers at the official price of N5,500 per 50-kilogramme bag.
