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By Vivian Onyebukwa
About 35 key fertilizer industry stakeholders from Nigeria and Niger convened in Lagos recently to discuss regional fertilizer trade, cost structures and to facilitate linkages between fertilizer traders in both countries.
The workshop was held by the US Agency For International Development (USAID)-funded Feed the Future Enhancing Growth through Regional Agricultural Input Systems (EnGRAIS) Project for West Africa, implemented by the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC). This was to improve regional fertilizer availability and use for small holder farmers to increase their yields and improve their general well-being.
HortNigeria, the Fertilizer Sector Reform Support Project in Niger, and the West African Fertilizer Association, also contributed to the organization of the workshop.
Since 2019, fertilizer trade has suffered disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and, more recently, the Russia-Ukraine war, which have threatened food production in the region. The workshop was a necessary inquiry to aid in minimizing costs and improving access to fertilizer in West Africa, as Nigeria is becoming a fertilizer powerhouse.
Prior to the workshop, EnGRAIS, in collaboration with AfricaFertilizer.org, another IFDC initiative, conducted a study to examine all the processes and costs involved in delivering fertilizer from the manufacturing plants to the farmer, including cross-border movement. That study served as the basis for discussions to detemine ways of establishing linkages and facilitating the fertilizer trade across the region, especially between Nigeria and Niger.
During the workshop, EnGRAIS and partners guided the stakeholders from the two countries in reviewing and validating the results of the study and helped them explore how trade linkages between the two countries could be improved.
“The conference developed a good template that highlights the step-by-step requirements to legally export our high-quality urea to Niger and other West African countries,” said Dr. S.K. Srivastava, Head of Marketing, Indorama Fertilizer, Nigeria.
“We were able to discover legal means and procedures for exporting urea to Niger. Government agencies from both countries disclosed the official trade channels and routes that we plan to explore.”
A major outcome of the workshop was a communiqué containing observations and recommendations addressed to strategic regional fertilizer sector trade facilitators and actors, including the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), regional fertilizer associations, and the respective governments of Nigeria and Niger.
The key actions recommended include: to facilitate collaboration between the Central Bank of West African States and the Central Bank of Nigeria to ease transactions between fertilizer trade in the local currencies. It is also to accelerate the operationalization of quality control collaboration in the region through the West Africa Committee for Fertilizer Control, and to increase bilateral collaboration on fertilizer trade and quality control between the two countries by developing a consistent dialogue between the relevant authorities.
Others include, to simplify the process of exporting fertilizer by road from Nigeria to other ECOWAS countries, and engage the two governments to learn about and use the free trade zones and dry land ports, which have the potential to significantly reduce costs.
Abdoulaye Dia Oumar, President of ANIDE, described the workshop as a great opportunity to offer a sustainable relationship for a win-win situation. “We engaged directly with fertilizer manufacturers who were represented, for example, Dangote, Indorama, and Notore. We had the opportunity to visit the Dangote fertilizer plant and to discuss the barriers to trade at the borders, and problems faced on the road,” Oumar said.
Currently, Nigeria produces six million metric tons of urea and has more than 70 blending plants. However, most of its production is currently exported to Brazil and India, with about 1.8 million metric tons consumed locally. In the meantime, neighbouring countries with great potential for fertilizer consumption and food production, such as Niger, are struggling to access fertilizer.
Facilitating fertilizer trade between Nigeria and the rest of the region has become more crucial in the wake of the fertilizer crisis that has created a shortage in most countries that had been relying on importation from overseas.
