TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigeria’s rising prominence as Africa’s fertiliser powerhouse is due to the implementation of the right policies.

According to a statement by Femi Adesina, presidential spokesperson, Buhari spoke on Tuesday in Abuja at an audience with the executive committee of the Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN).

Buhari said this achievement, in a very short time, had ensured a steady flow of investments to the sector from the private sector; bringing prosperity to millions of Nigerians and good returns to the investors.

While commending FEPSAN for partnering with the government in the backward integration project of enhancing the agricultural value chain, he also expressed delight that the era of the persistent shortage of fertiliser in the country was now a thing of the past.

‘‘When this administration came to office in 2015, our focus was on three key areas; Security, Economy and tackling corruption,” the statement quoted Buhari as saying.

‘‘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 on 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.

‘‘As a government, it was very clear to us that these practices needed to change. Nigeria is naturally blessed with most of the raw materials needed to produce fertilisers.

‘‘Nigeria has all the skills and manpower required to convert these raw materials to fertilisers.

“With the right enabling environment, Nigeria has the entrepreneurs who are ready to invest in the sector. So we went to work. And as the Chairman of FEPSAN mentioned in his remarks, the rest is now history.”

Buhari said a key indicator of his government’s successful policies is the fact that the country had no shortages of fertilisers during the global COVID lockdowns.

‘‘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,” he added.

On his part, Thomas Etuh, FEPSAN president, thanked Buhari for commissioning two facilities by members of the association — Barbedos blending plant in Kaduna and the Dangote Urea plant in Lagos — within two months.

‘‘Mr President, before you created the PFI Initiative in 2016, Nigeria’s fertiliser production base was almost zero,” he said.

“We had less than 7 companies producing at 10 percent of their installed capacity. Nigeria’s Urea output was reported at less than 300,000 tons.”

Citing recent data from a fertiliser working group that reviews and validates consumption data spanning over 12 years, the FEPSA president said Nigeria recorded its highest consumption of fertilisers at 1.8 million tons per annum in 2021.

He, therefore, assured Nigerians that the association is ready, willing and available to ensure that fertilisers are available in all parts of the country for the 2022 wet season.