Ebonyi builds additional fertilizer plant

The Ebonyi state government has commenced the construction and installation of another fertilizer plant.

Ogbonnaya Chukwu, senior special assistant to the governor on investment, said the building of the new facility at the state-owned Ebonyi Fertilizer and Chemical Company Limited is to ensure that the state meets the “soaring demand” for various blends of NPK fertilizer produced in the country.

According to Chukwu, construction work has already reached advanced stages at the new site located behind the existing plant complex along the Abakaliki-Ogoja highway in the state capital, while the plants and machinery installations are expected to be completed soon.

“When completed, the new plant will add a production capacity of 40 metric tonnes of blended NPK fertilizer per hour to the existing plant built in 2004, which has a capacity of 32 metric tonnes per hour,” Chukwu said in a statement.

“The state government, under the leadership of David Umahi, envisioned that the expanded capacity of the plant will place the company in good stead to meet the growing fertilizer needs of the state as well as those of the neighbouring south-east and south-south states.”

Chukwu, who also doubles as the general manager of the company, commended the federal government for the vision behind the presidential fertilizer initiative, saying farmers in the state have benefitted immensely from the programme, which has made possible and easy for fertilizer blends to be delivered on time and at affordable prices.

“I think Ebonyi State Fertilizer and Chemical Company Limited is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the presidential fertilizer initiative (PFI),” he said.

“The intervention by PFI has helped us to up our game in terms of employment generation and service delivery. Farmers in the state now get very high quality fertilizers early and that was largely responsible for the high volume of rice produced in the state in 2017.”