Dangote ambitious $2bn plant takes baby steps
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| Aliko Dangote |
With a capacity of 3 million
tonnes per annum, the plant has been classified as the biggest project in the history of the entire fertiliser industry in the world.
Siapem of Italy is its
engineering, procurement and supervision contractor while Tata Consulting
Engineers, India, is the project management consultant.
Virtually all its sections have been
completed and are going through pre-testing and it has started receiving gas
supply from the Nigerian Gas Company and Chevron Nigeria Limited under their gas
sale and purchase agreement to supply 70 million standard cubic feet per day of
natural gas to Dangote Fertiliser Limited.
The project, which will create
thousands of direct and indirect jobs in related fields, will provide a major
boost to the agricultural sector by significantly reducing the importation of
fertiliser in Nigeria and ultimately removing the need for imports when the plant
is in full production.
Group Executive Director,
Strategy, Portfolio Development & Capital Projects, Dangote Industries
Limited, Devakumar Edwin said Nigeria will be able to save $0.5bn from import
substitution and provide $0.4bn from exports of products from the plant.
“The supply of fertiliser from
the plant will be enough for Nigeria and neighbouring countries,” he assured. “Right
now, farmers are forced to utilise whatever fertiliser that’s available as they
have no choice, but we need to know that the fertiliser that will work in one state
may not be suitable in another state as they may not have the same soil type
and composition. The same fertiliser you use for sorghum may not be the one for
sugar cane.”
He pointed out that the complex,
which is sited on 500 hectares of land, has the capacity to expand as it occupies
just a small fraction of the allotted portion.
“The management of the complex are confident
that the fertiliser business will deliver reasonable profit to the company and
its shareholders as it’s projected that population growth and the need for food
production will jack up the consumption of urea fertiliser beginning from this
year when production would have commenced in earnest.
“The current consumption of urea
estimated at a dismal 700,000 tonnes per annum by Nigerian farmers is said to
be due to very poor usage and is believed to be the cause of poor product yield
which threatens food security in the country.
“The Nigerian population is
projected to increase to about 207 million this year, and this would lead to
increased food production. Estimates point out that around five million tonnes
of fertilisers are required per year in Nigeria in the next five to seven years
bifurcated into 3.5 million tonnes of urea
and 1.5 million tonnes of NPK while current production levels in Nigeria are at
1.6 million tonnes as at 2019.”
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