Dangote Industries Limited says its three million metric tonnes granulated urea fertiliser plant is now completed and its products will flood the Nigerian market from Monday June 07.
Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman, Dangote Group, made the disclosure on Friday, as the Central Bank Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, came on a final inspection tour of the facility in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Emefiele was in company with five senior bankers and Chief Executive Officers of Firstbank, Guarantee Trust, Access, United Bank of Africa and Zenith banks.
According to Dangote, the three million metric tonnes of Urea is certified and 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, ” Dangote said.
He said that the Urea that was inspected was a small percentage of the gas that the country was actually flaring, and it would bring some $1.2billion into the country in terms of foreign exchange.
Dangote thanked Emefiele and the bank chiefs for being there to ensure the success of the plants, noting that the time had come for the country to move away from relying on sale of crude oil.
He urged them to target mostly gas -based industries so the country’s economy could improve and make a lot of dollars.
“We need to look at transforming the industrial capacity of the country earning dollars and at the same time doing what we call import substitution,” Dangote said.
Earlier, Emefiele said that Nigeria had the potential to export at least 3.5 million metric tonnes of Urea to different parts of the world.
The fertilizer complex project is located at the Lekki Free Zone (LFZ), in Lagos State, Nigeria. Phase 1 of the project which is estimated to cost $2.5 billion, is to manufacture 3MMTPA of urea.
The capacity will later be expanded to produce multiple grades of fertilizers to meet soil, crop and climate-specific requirement for the African continent. Fertilizer is essential for agribusiness in Africa.
The coming on stream of Dangote Fertilizer would surely make Africa self-sufficient in food production and a net exporter of food to the world.