Seven fertiliser blending plants out of the 32 in the country have commenced production and distribution ahead of the 2017 rain-fed farming season under the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI).
Some of the blending plants which have already been supplied with raw materials including phosphate from Morocco and are blending include Fertiliser and Chemicals Ltd, Kaduna, producing 300,000 metric tonnes; Al-Yuma Fertilizer Company (300,000 metric tonnes) in Madobi-Kano; Kano Agricultural Supply Company, supplying 15 trailers daily and Golden Fertiliser based in Lagos.
Others blending plants have also received raw materials for blending activities. Funtua blending plant has received materials through the rail, the Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN)’s President Thomas Etuh, has said.
The FEPSAN president said the seven active blending companies are under the 1st of 5 batches that would produce 1 million tons of fertiliser under the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative.
Mr Etuh, who stressed that most of the plants have been dominant for over a decade, said they have been revived to participate in the programme, adding that more plants are underway.
“Others are under maintenance and should be joining before the end of April,” he said.
Speaking on the funding for the project, he stated that “N2 billion worth of raw materials with 10% cash is what we give them and then we pay for the overhead and a little profit. It’s like contract blending, they are blending for FEPSAN and then we pay.”
He noted that “the project is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) in which they borrowed N20 billion from the Sovereign Wealth Fund which is then recycled into the next batch.”
But the president, Agro Dealers Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Kabiru Umar Fara, has expressed concern over the supply of urea – a component for blending the NPK fertiliser, and called on the federal government to lift the ban on the import of the input.
The agro-dealers’ president, who spoke with journalists during the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI) delegation and Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN) monitoring teams’ visit to the Al-YUMA Fertiliser and Chemical Company in Kano, maintained that “while Urea is needed by blending plants to produce NPK, they cannot import it.”
Under the scheme, states that have already indicated interest to key into the programme are encouraged to pick fertiliser from the blending plants and that no individual, institution or organisation under any circumstance could sell above N5,500.
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