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By Henry Umahi
The other day, the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos, witnessed unprecedented human and vehicular traffic as a crowd of important Nigerians descended on the area. Some of the visitors even came in helicopters, to underscore the importance of the assignment.
Indeed, it was a day of history; it was the day the Dangote Fertiliser plant was inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari.
It was a gathering of leaders to celebrate another Nigerian success story. As Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State put it, “the audacity of the project is amazing.”
Built on 500 hectares of land, which is about 1,235 football pitches, the first phase of the plant was delivered at an estimated cost of $2.5 billion.
It is the largest of its kind in Africa and the second largest in the world.
Achieving this impressive milestone was not a piece of cake. Building the plant took some engineering ingenuity, considering the environment. First, the huge expanse of swampy land was filled with tons of fresh sand.
Now completed, the plant is complex and complicated. There are different segments and huge machinery everywhere.
According to the promoters of the project, the vision is to make Nigeria self-reliant in food production by improving crop productivity for the farmers.
Buhari said: “I commend the chairman, board and management of Dangote Industries Limited for their business initiative in building this plant to reduce our dependence on importation of fertiliser, create jobs on a massive scale, increase the inflow of foreign exchange and accelerate economic growth.
“This new plant is a testament to the widely acknowledged patriotism of Aliko Dangote and the leadership of Dangote Industries Limited. It also demonstrates their commitment to the socio-economic development of our country and the wellbeing of our people.
“I am confident that the investment in this plant will replicate the group’s earlier exploit in the cement sector, where Dangote Cement holds the enviable record as our continent’s largest cement producer with footprints in 10 other African countries. The group’s investment in integrated cement plants, spanning the value chain from quarry to bagging, has effectively ended Nigeria’s dependence on imported cement products.”
According to Buhari, the Dangote Group has created thousands of jobs across the country.
He described the company as the second biggest employer of labour in Nigeria, after the Federal Government. He added that the importance of job creation by private sector operators to national security could not be over-emphasised.
He further said: “I am informed that you have already started exporting to other countries, including the United States, India, and Brazil.
“The coming on stream of the plant is creating huge opportunities in the areas of job creation, trade, warehousing, transport, and logistics.
“This will create significant wealth, reduce poverty, and help in securing the future of our nation. In the agriculture sector, another focal point of our economic policy, we expect a boom as fertiliser is now readily available in greater quantities and better quality.
“Many Nigerians who hitherto practised subsistence farming because of the unavailability of necessary inputs can now take up agriculture as a business. We expect the rise of a new breed of agro-preneurs who will add value to farming and make the nation self-sufficient in food production.”
Assuring that his government would remain focused on providing an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive, Buhari said with the fertilizer plant, Nigeria expects a boom as “fertilizer is now readily available in greater quantities and better quality.”
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, said the inauguration of the plant was timely because it has “helped Nigeria to solve a perennial fertilizer problem.”
He said agriculture was a lifeline for Nigeria’s economy, contributing 25.8 per cent of its $173 billion dollars gross domestic product in 2021. However, farmers are sometimes constrained with limited supplies such as fertilizer and improved seedlings.
For the president of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, “the new plant will make Nigeria self-sufficient in fertilizer production with excess capacity to export to other African markets and the rest of the world.”
“It is an ambitious developmental project, which will drastically reduce the level of unemployment and youth restiveness in this country, through the direct and indirect employment.
“Our goal is to make fertiliser available in sufficient quantities and quality for our teeming farmers in achieving greater agricultural outputs and, to help realise this potential, we are rolling out initiatives that will transform the agriculture sector, including services for all small and medium-scale farmers.”
Dangote added that the plant had established well-equipped soil testing laboratories to ensure appropriate fertiliser blends were applied to specific soil and crop types.
In the course of its construction, the complex is said to have provided about 5,000 direct and indirect jobs in all categories, an additional 5,000 jobs within the community, as well as created 500 permanent jobs.
The future plans of the plant include meeting the bulk demand for nitrogenous fertilisers, value addition to the major natural resource of natural gas in Nigeria, expanding the manufacturing facilities at single location in Phase 2 and produce all grades of fertilisers, including various NPK grades required for African soils and crops.
With the coming of the Dangote Group, Ibeju -Lekki is developing rapidly. New estates and businesses are springing up.
