After months of speculation, Dangote urea fertiliser is now finally on sale nationwide and it currently pushes out a minimum of 120 trucks per day across the country.
The Group Executive Director (Strategy, Capital Projects & Portfolio Development), Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin, revealed to the press over the weekend that the plant which has the capacity to turn out more than 4,500 tonnes of urea per day will conveniently meet the local demand and even produce for exports.
According to him: “…We have the capacity to turn out 4,500 tonnes of urea everyday…this is a bulk application fertiliser…each crop in Nigeria or globally will require Nitrogen and this is a rich fertiliser, having 46 per cent nitrogen…The company has the capacity to meet local demand and also export to African countries… Currently, the demand is less than 1 million tonnes and we alone can produce 3 million tonnes, so we can easily meet local demand and also produce for export to other West African countries.”
Aside fertiliser production, the company, according to Mr Edwin, is already working to support the farmers with training on application of the fertiliser and even establish laboratories across the country for proper soil examination.
“The uniqueness of this plant, apart from the fact that we are producing is the focus on farmers’ support, on training, education, development as we are now establishing laboratories across the country and even mobile laboratories where we can go drive around and take soil samples for proper examination to effectively grow the agricultural outputs across the country.”
The urea fertiliser plant was built to tap into Nigeria’s demand for fertiliser, a critical component of achieving food sufficiency for Africa’s most populous country.
The fertiliser plant is expected to manufacture 3 million metric tonnes of urea per annum, with a view to reducing the nation’s fertiliser imports, and generating $400 million annual foreign exchange from export to Africa countries.
Meanwhile, marketers and farmers in Kano have described the newly introduced Dangote fertiliser as a game changer and a forecast for the expected agricultural revolution in the country.
Marketers and farmers who were apparently excited, over the weekend welcomed the more than ten trucks that entered Kano markets at the weekend.