Days of persistent forex scarcity may be coming to an end in Nigeria as Dangote’s $2.5 billion fertiliser plant is projected to realise more than $400 million in foreign exchange every year.
The plant scheduled for launching on Tuesday, 22nd March 2022, occupies 500 hectares of land in Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos Nigeria.
According to the Dangote Group, President Muhammadu Buhari will visit Lagos for the inauguration of the plant.
Buhari will be joined by the Lagos Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu as well as the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mahmouds Abubakar, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo and Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, for the inauguration ceremony of what has been described as Africa’s largest granulated urea fertiliser complex.
Although arguably rich in agriculture and blessed with fertile lands, Nigeria’s dependency on fertiliser is growing by the day and this is also important for the mass production of certain food products across the country. The Dangote fertiliser plant is also coming up at a time when stakeholders have expressed the need to create an even better Nigeria where food security is assured.
According to Dangote, Nigeria is estimated to need about five to seven million metric tonnes of fertilisers per annum. However, the current level of fertiliser utilisation in Nigeria is 1.5 million metric tonnes. The company also went ahead to disclose that it has been positioned to produce over three million metric tonnes per annum of urea fertiliser in phase one of operations. Dangote also revealed that the company will work with agriculture stakeholders and development partners with state governments across Nigeria, as well as across Africa – provided that they are looking for a sustainable approach to improve soil and farm yields.
Investors King also gathered that plans are already on the way for expanding production to provide more than the plant’s three million metric tonnes per annum capacity and to produce multiple grades of fertilisers to meet soil, crop and climate-specific requirement for the African continent.
Dangote is one of the few Nigerian-owned enterprises that has made strong commitments to providing sustainable solutions across a number of sectors and the diversification of the business to the agriculture sector in Nigeria is also one that has been welcomed across boards. Over the years, Dangote has created sustainable environmental management practices, and products through a proactive approach that addresses the challenges of climate change and global warming.
While Dangote is also making a commitment to the sustainability of the environment, the establishment of this fertiliser plant will also lead to employment opportunities for Nigeria and reduce the country’s importation of fertilisers.
Also, the plant is expected to generate over $400 million annual foreign exchange from export to other African countries.
During the visit by the president, the unveiling of the plaque, a facility tour of the fertiliser plant and an inspection tour of the 650,000 oil refinery and 900,000 polypropylene plant as well as the Lekki Deep Sea Port is also expected to be undertaken.