The President, Muhammadu Buhari, says
his regime has set Nigeria on the right track as Africa’s leading fertiliser
producer.
Buhari made the disclosure on Tuesday at the State House in
Abuja, while receiving the Executive Committee of Fertiliser Producers and
Suppliers Association of Nigeria.
In his address, the President noted that this remarkable
achievement, had, within a short time, ensured a steady flow of investments to
the sector from the private sector, opening the portal of auspicious dividends
for millions of Nigerians and foreign investors.
He said, “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.”
Whilst commending the FEPSAN for its collaborative efforts
with the government in promoting the agricultural value chain, Buhari expressed
optimism that the era of persistent shortage of fertiliser across the country
had now become a history.
‘‘So we went to work. And as the Chairman of FEPSAN
mentioned in his remarks, the rest is now history,’’ he said.
The President also cited the combative measures taken so far
to curbing over-dependence on imports, ensuring the availability of the
commodity, with a view to attaining self-sufficiency in food production in the
country.
He said, “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.
‘‘For Nigeria, a predominantly agrarian nation, having an
inclusive economy meant we needed to prioritise the enhancement of our
agricultural value chain.
‘‘We quickly identified the persistent shortage of fertiliser
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,” Buhari noted.
According to the President, it became incumbent on his
government to enforce a reversal of the status quo ante, as the nation is
naturally blessed with the necessary wherewithal including most of the raw
materials it needs to mass-produce fertilisers.
‘‘Nigeria has all the skills and manpower required to
convert these raw materials to fertilisers,” Buhari affirmed, adding that with
the right enabling environment, investors from around the world would savour
the yearnings to invest in the agricultural sector.
The President noted that the country had experienced no
shortages of fertilisers during the global COVID-19 stricture, saying this was
an indicator of his regime’s integrated policies.
He said, ‘‘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 fertiliser trade.”
“All these trends
indicate our backward integration policy was the right policy,” Buhari noted.
In his remarks, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said
fertiliser remains pivotal to achieving and sustaining food security, just as
the apex bank continued to hinge on its availability and accessibility by
farmers to improve yield, productivity and ultimately agricultural output.
Highlighting some CBN’s interventions, including the Real
Sector Support Facility; Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme; National Food
Security Programme, and the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative, Emefiele said a
total of over N114.09bn had been disbursed to support the fertiliser industry
over the last five years.
He explained that the interventions were long-term loans at
concessionary interest rates to booster domestic blending and distribution
across 36 states of the federation.
He also said that the bank was partnering with major
investors in the industry, such as Dangote and Indorama, to ensure that they
sell Urea at discounted prices to the blending plants for a streamlined market
prices of the commodity.
‘‘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,’’ Emefiele assured.
On CBN Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, the CBN boss said it had
disbursed the sum of N941.26bn to 4.2m smallholder famers cultivating 21
agricultural commodities on 5.4m hectares of land across the country, adding
that for the 2021 wet season programme, the CBN disbursed N193.59bn to 923,699
farmers cultivating seven commodities on 1.16m hectares of land.
In his response, the FEPSAN President, Thomas Etuh,
commended President Buhari for the inauguration of two facilities by members of
the association: Barbedos blending plant in Kaduna, and the Dangote Urea plant
in Lagos – all within a two-month period.
Etuh said, “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.
‘‘Mr President, before you created the PFI Initiative in
2016, Nigeria’s fertiliser production base was almost zero; we had less than
seven companies producing at 10 per cent of their installed capacity. Nigeria’s
Urea output was reported at less than 300,000 tons,’’ he said.
The FEPSAN president further observed that Nigeria had
recorded its highest consumption of fertilisers at 1.8m tons per annum in 2021,
citing recent data from a fertiliser working group that reviews and validates
consumption data spanning over 12 years.
He assured Nigerians that the association was ready, willing and available to ensure that fertilisers were available in all parts of the country for the 2022 wet season.
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