The President of Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN), Mr. Thomas Etuh, has said the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative will save the Federal Government about $200 million in foreign exchange (forex).
He made the disclosure while monitoring the fertiliser project in Kaduna State. He said it was a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model designed to reduce fertiliser to N5,500.
Etuh explained that the plant was aimed to produce 1 million metric tons (mmts) of NPK fertiliser for this year’s wet season farming as well as 500, 000 mmts for dry season farming.
He said it will save the Federal Government another N60 billion in budgetary provision for fertiliser in 2017.
According to him, as at December last year, there were five fertiliser blending plants in the country, running at 10 per cent capacity but had been increased to 32 blending plants.
Major partners in the project are the Presidential Committee on Fertiliser and the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).
Etuh said: “We are monitoring some of the plants of the presidential fertiliser initiative which is a public private partnership. Some of you will remember that FEPSAN signed an agreement with OCP of Morocco to order phosphate as one of the raw materials for production of fertiliser.
“We only import 37 per cent of the inputs we don’t have in Nigeria which is urea and limestone to get fertiliser to the farmers.
“From that December 14, 2016 to February 17, 2017, we gave farmers free gift. They start to receive fertiliser at N5,500. Agro-dealers also get theirs, when they come to a plant like this, they will pay N5000, they are supposed to pay for transport and others so they will sale for N5,500.
“This is a PPP arrangement; there is no subsidy at all. We will save government in six months about N60 billion and about $200 million in forex.
“Thousands of jobs have been created within two months and more jobs will be created. There is a movement of trucks bringing raw materials from Lagos, Port Harcourt and other places to the blending plants.
