Dangote Industries Limited has continued to pull remarkable strides towards ensuring Nigeria become self-sufficient in the agricultural sector especially as regards the importation of fertilizer into the country. Dangote fertilizer plant at the moment is going through different stages of pre-commissioning and test-run to the delight of the business tycoon and Africa’s richest man (Aliko Dangote). With Saipem of Italy as the Engineering, Procurement and Supervision (EP) Contractor for the plant, and Tata Engineers, India, as the Project Management Consultants (PMC), the fertilizer plant has a capacity of processing three million tones per year and has been described as the biggest project in the world fertilizer industry history.
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Virtually all sections of the plant are undergoing test-run as areas such as the Central Control Room, Ammonia and Urea Bulk Storage, Power Generator Plant, Cooling Tower, and Granulation Plant have all been completed and are in the test-run stage. Significant progress has already been made towards the local economy as the plant has already started receiving gas supplies from notable Nigerian gas companies such as Chevron Nigeria Limited and Nigeria Gas Company.
Already, Dangote Fertiliser has started receiving gas supply from the Nigerian Gas Company and Chevron Nigeria Limited under the Gas Sale and Purchase was Agreement to supply 70 million standard cubic feet per day (scf/d) of natural gas to Dangote Fertiliser Limited…The project, which will create thousands of direct and indirect jobs in construction and related fields, will provide a major boost to the agricultural sector by significantly reducing the importation of fertiliser in Nigeria and ultimately removing the need for imports when the plant is in full production.
– Dangote Industries Limited
Aside from the fact that the project will help tackle the issue of unemployment in Nigeria as it will create jobs for the teeming Nigerian population especially the youth, Devakumar Edwin, the Group Executive Director, Strategy, Portfolio Development & Capital Projects, Dangote Industries Limited revealed the plant will save Nigeria a huge sum ($0.5billion) from import substitution and add more ($0.4 billion) to the country’s export.
Thus, the supply of fertiliser from the plant will be enough for the Nigerian market and neighbouring countries…I am happy that by the time our plant is fully commissioned, the country will become self-sufficient in fertiliser production and even have the capacity to export the products to other African countries. Right now, farmers are forced to utilise whatever fertiliser is available, as they have no choice, but we need to know that the fertiliser that will work in one State may not be suitable in another State, as they may not have the same soil type and composition. The same fertiliser you use for sorghum may not be the fertiliser you will use for sugar cane
– Devakumar Edwin
Estimated to gulp $2billion, the fertilizer complex which occupies 500 hectares of land is capable of expanding as it presently occupies just a small portion of the allotted portion of land.
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The management of the complex are confident that the fertiliser business will deliver reasonable profit to the company and its shareholders as it is projected that population growth and the need for food production will jack up the consumption of Urea fertiliser beginning from 2020 when production of the production would have commenced in earnest.
– Edwin
Nigerian farmers currently consume an estimated dismal 700,000 tonnes of Urea per annum, which is largely blamed as the cause of poor productivity, and with the Nigerian population projected to increase to about 207 million in 2020, meaning an increase in food production, Dangote’s fertilizer plant comes at the perfect timing.
Source
Vanguardngr
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