FG revives 18 fertiliser blending plants FEPSAN
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by emmanuel afonne7 the whole idea is to get people to build plants around a cluster so that it helps with cost of transportation to achieve that price target we are looking at he added1 the president of fepsan mr thomas etuh who said this in an interview with news agency of nigeria nan in abuja on tuesday stressed that the resuscitated plants were now operational1 he recalled that only six out of the 32 fertiliser blending plants existing in the country were functional at inception of the buhari-administration in 20151 we then had six fertiliser plants working at 10 per cent capacity but with the introduction of pfi we moved to 11 plants in the first phase and today 18 out of the 32 plants are engaged in this programme1 at the end of last years season we closed with 12 fertiliser blending plants because wacot limited in collaboration with the edo state government added one plant to the 11 we had in the first phase1 about five plants are being evaluated to meet up the standards before we enlist them and i can also tell you that because of this programme we have five new fertiliser blending plants being set up in the country1 we have one each in zamfara ajaokuta in kogi akwa-ibom and funtua in katsina state while the one in kaduna is at the point of inauguration1 the plants in ajaokuta kogi and zamfara should come live by the end of the year while that of funtua in katsina state might come up by first quarter of next year 20191 fertiliser producers and suppliers association of nigeria fepsan says 18 fertiliser blending plants across the country have been revived under the presidential fertiliser initiative pfi introduced by president muhammadu buharis administration1 etuh said that nigeria would soon be reckoned with in area of fertiliser production considering the amount of money that was invested in the industry in the last three years1 he added that nigeria would soon be an exporter of npk nitrogen phosphorus and potassium fertiliser1 about 63 per cent of the raw materials are locally available in the country the materials are produced by some companies1 we have limestone granules with calcium produced by west african fertiliser company in okpela we have the urea produced by indorama and notore in onne rivers state1 so i know that in the next two to three years aliko dangotes fertiliser plant will start production and other are also coming up. currently nigeria is a net exporter of urea-based fertiliser1 with the aliko plant coming on board and indorama increasing to a second line we will be producing about 7 million tonnes of fertiliser. about 70 per cent of the fertiliser would be for exports while the remaining 30 per cent would be used within the country he said1 etuh who is also a pfi committee member said that fepsan was working hard to ensure that every farmer cluster had a blending plant to ease product transportation costs and facilitate a reduction in fertiliser prices1 he said that the fertiliser blending plants in niger and plateau were to service states in the north central geopolitical zone while the fertiliser plants in lagos were to cater for states in the south west and south east zones as well as kwara which as in the north central zone1 so i think these new five plants should be up and running by the first quarter of next year he added1