Dangote Fertiliser begins urea production, spends $2.5bn

Dangote Fertiliser Limited announced on Friday the formal commencement of production of urea in commercial quantity and the plan to hit the Nigerian market on Monday.

The President, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, was quoted in a statement as saying the plant, with a capacity to produce three million metric tonnes per annum of urea, had been classified as the biggest project in the entire fertiliser industry in the world.

“This phase one of the project, which is estimated to cost $2.5 billion, is to manufacture 3mmtpa of urea per annum. This capacity will later be expanded to produce multi grades of fertilisers to meet soil, crop and climate-specific requirements for the African continent,” he told top bankers, including the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, who witnessed the commencement of production.

He said the fertiliser plant would make Nigeria the biggest urea exporting country in sub-Saharan Africa and biggest producer of polypropylene and polyethylene.

Dangote said, “The three million tonnes of urea is certified, licensed by all regulatory authorities in Nigeria. We have gotten all licenses from the National Security Adviser, the Ministry of Agriculture, Standard Organisation of Nigeria, NAFDAC and all other authorities.

“So, our urea will be in the market from Monday, and by God’s grace, before the end of this month, we will start bringing in dollars from the first line that we have commissioned. He added that the urea is a small percentage utilisation of gas that the country is actually flaring.”

He said the company planned to saturate the market with Urea and having already collected the database of farmers would also ensure adequate training of farmers on best application of Urea. “Our primary interest is to saturate the local market. Training farmers will help to sustain farming activities, and this will ensure food security.”

The CBN governor said that Nigeria has the potential to export at least 3.5 million metric tonnes of urea to different parts of the world.

He said, “Nigeria needs between 1 million metric to 1.5 million metric tonnes of urea to meet the local demand. So, we have potential to export at least three to four million metrics tonnes of Urea to different parts of the world.

“With this latest development, Nigeria has become one of the major producers of urea in the world. This, for me, is a story that no one would have believed will happen in Nigeria.”