Dangote fertiliser to hit market on Monday

Dangote Industries Limited says products from its $2 billion granulated urea fertiliser plant will be available in the market on Monday.

Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote Group and Africa’s richest person, told NAN on Friday that the plant has been certified and licensed by all regulatory authorities in Nigeria.

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, was on an inspection tour of the facility, accompanied by Dangote, as well as chief executive officers of top Nigerian banks.

The fertiliser plant, located at Ibeju Lekki, Lagos, has a name-plate annual capacity of three million tons of urea and ammonia — largest in the world.

“We have gotten all licenses from the National Security Adviser, the ministry of agriculture, Standard Organisation of Nigeria, NAFDAC and all other authorities,” he said.

“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.”

The billionaire businessman said that the urea fertiliser plant would bring about $1.2 billion dollars into the country in terms of foreign exchange.

On his part, Emefiele said that Nigeria had the potential to export at least 3.5 million metric tonnes of urea to different parts of the world.

“By the time we add what we have to the existing capacity from Indorama which is about 1.5 million metric tonnes and Notore, maybe about 300 metric tonnes, we will be having close to about five metric tonnes capacity of urea,” the CBN governor said.

“Nigeria ranks amongst the leading countries in the production of Urea in the world. This, for me, is a story that no one would have believed would happen in Nigeria.”

Speaking on behalf of the bankers, Herbert Wigwe, the group managing director of Access Bank Plc, commended Dangote for the creation of a world class manufacturing enterprise in Nigeria.

”There was a lot of skepticism along the way as we moved on; can this product be completed, are we sure we have the right financing models and all of that,” he said.

“Today we saw urea produced , we saw it bagged and we saw it loaded on buses, and by Monday it would be in our markets. This for us is a very important milestone for Nigeria and Africa.”