By CGTN Africa
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari says the 2.5 billion U.S. dollar Dangote Fertiliser Plant will make Nigeria’s dependence on imported agricultural products a thing of the past.
During Tuesday’s inauguration of the plant in Lagos, the Nigerian leader and Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, who built the facility, said the nation “stands to gain extensively” from production at the plant.
“I am informed that you (Dangote) have already started exporting to other countries, including the United States, India, and Brazil,” Buhari said. “The coming on stream of the plant is creating huge opportunities in the areas of job creation, trade, warehousing, transport, and logistics.
“This will create significant wealth, reduce poverty, and help in securing the future of our nation. In the agriculture sector, another focal point of our economic policy, we expect a boom as fertiliser is now readily available in greater quantities and better quality.”
Agriculture is a lifeline for Nigeria’s economy, contributing 25.8 percent of its 173 billion U.S. dollars gross domestic product in 2021.
Nigeria Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele said the inauguration of the plant is timely because of the current conflict in Ukraine.
Across the world, high fertiliser costs already threaten farmers amid sanctions on Russia, a major global supplier of fertiliser, where authorities in March urged domestic producers to temporarily halt exports. Emefiele feels the Dangote plant has “helped Nigeria to solve a perennial fertiliser problem.”
Officials say the new plant has a capacity to produce 3 million metric tons of fertiliser annually.
Dangote says the plant is the largest granulated urea fertiliser plant in Africa and second-largest in the world, with the capability to help Nigeria retain about 125 million U.S.dollars in import substitution and provide 625 million from exports of its products.
He also predicts the plant will provide desperately needed jobs for Nigerian youth.
“It is an ambitious developmental project which will drastically reduce the level of unemployment and youth restiveness in this country, through the direct and indirect employment,” he said.
“Our goal is to make fertiliser available in sufficient quantities and quality for our teeming farmers in achieving greater agricultural outputs and to help realise this potential, we are rolling out initiatives that will transform the agriculture sector including services for all small and medium-scale farmers.”
Dangote also says the plant could potentially spark new development of Nigeria’s agribusiness sector.
“Many Nigerians who hitherto practiced subsistence farming because of the inability of necessary inputs can now take up agriculture as a business. 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.”