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Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
A United States-based organic fertilizer company, Biowish-Crop, is planning to establish an African branch in Kebbi State, with a capacity of over 1,000 employees.
Biowish’s Chief Marketing Officer, Nigeria, Mrs Bill Stevens, confirmed this on Monday in Birnin Kebbi during a meeting with the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kebbi State chapter when introducing the organic fertilizer to them, disclosing that the company plans to employ over 1,000 workers.
Stevens explained that the company had planned to establish the branch in South Africa, but that she had convinced the board to pick Kebbi State, Nigeria.
‘We don’t want to keep on importing fertilizers from the US into Nigeria. We want to have a factory here and we have chosen Kebbi State, Nigeria, because the state has stable electricity for the industrial sector,’ she said.
‘They also have a lot of farmers and a lot of opportunities for Kebbi State to have a fertilizer company of pyre organics. So we want to have such company in Kebbi State.’
She noted that both the Federal Government and NAFDAC are aware of their presence in Nigeria since 2014, and stressed that their product has been experimented on in Kwara, Zamfara Sokoto, Kaduna and Kebbi states and was adjudged to be best for crop output increment.
‘So, once we established consumers based in Nigeria, starting from Kebbi State, we can now, based on what we consume, look for the establishment of the factory.
‘Once the consumers patronise our product, appreciate it, we can now start producing in Kebbi State. So, there is no need to be importing any more. We can just be importing the inputs and manufacturing here in Kebbi.
‘If we start the factory, within the first year to five years, we can employ from 250 to 1,000 as we are expanding. Because we are not only going to be producing fertilizers for Nigeria alone but [be exporting] to African countries,’ he said.
She added that the company had decided to reduce the price of the 250g organic fertilizer from N5,500 per pack as approved by the Federal Government to N5,000 to Kebbi State farmers alone after vigorous deliberations with the farmer’s association.
Earlier, the Kebbi State Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Engr Abdullahi Shehu, who had introduced the organic fertilizer to the farmers, said the ministry had received a lot of complaints from farmers on adulterated fertilizers in circulation which they bought on exorbitant prices without improved outputs.
‘It is a pity if at this period fertilizers are difficult to access. Now the cost of the fertilizer is about N10,000 plus and the suppliers told us that that is the cost of bringing it from Port Harcourt to Kebbi State.
‘Other fertilizers, most, not all, are adulterated fertilizers. We have received many complaints from farmers that they used these adulterated fertilizers and no results,’ he said.
In his remarks, the Chairman of AFAN in the State, Alhaji Usman Dan-Gwandu Suru, who welcomed the company to the state, appealed to the company to reduce the price of the organic fertilizer for the farmers to enable them to buy it en masse for their cultivation.
Mrs Stevens, speaking at the meeting with AFAN members, Kebbi State, along with State Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Kebbi State, Engr Abdullahi Shehu
The State Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Kebbi State, Engr Abdullahi Shehu, speaking at the meeting.
