By Dike Onwuamaeze
The Group Executive Director, Strategy, Capital Projects & Portfolio Development, Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Mr. Devakumar Edwin, has disclosed that the Dangote Fertilizer Plant (DFP) would target markets in West and Central Africa as well as the United States of America and South American countries for the sale of its urea fertilizer products.
Some of the South American markets being targeted by the DIL, according to Edwin, include Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay.
He said: “We have good markets in West Africa and Central Africa. South America is a big market too. Even the United States of America is also a big market. We have customers from the USA and South America who have been discussing with us in the past six months. Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Columbia are fertilizer-consuming nations that depend on imports. We have good urea fertilizer products that can compete with products from Russia in the South American market.”
Edwin pointed out that the DIL would not focus on East Africa region even though that it has a good potential market because it would be easier and much more economical for the region to get supply from the Middle East because of shipping cost.
He also disclosed that the DIL would soon commission its port facilities for export of fertilizer to generate foreign exchange.
He said: “If you go to the ports you will see that we have big ship holders. And we about to commission the first ship loader that has been fully assembled and we are also building a second ship loader so that we can load the ships automatically.”
He told journalists during the weekend that the DIL has the capacity to meet Nigeria’s annual need of one million tonnes with its three million tonnes per annum capacity fertilizer plant.
He also disclosed that the DIL would not be limited to the production of urea fertilizer but would produce the entire bouquet of fertilizer products that could offer varieties to its customers.
Edwin also said that the DIL hoped for favourable return on investment and projected to recoup its investment of over $2 billion between seven and ten years.
He also disclosed that a bag of the Dangote fertilizer would be sold at N8,800, but refused to speak on whether it would be subsidised by the government or not.
“As you know, it is for the government to make the decision and I will not like to get into that. Ours is to concentrate on the production and supply by ensuring that the best quality fertilizer is produced and distributed adequately so that farmers will get their fertilizer in time,” he said.
Edwin told journalists that the DIL set aside $15 million to acquire trucks and trailers for efficient distribution of fertilizer in the Nigerian market, adding that “our primary focus will be the Middle Belt and the north. We have registered over 945 customers (distributors) from Cross Rivers to Borno, Sokoto and Ogun States.”
He further disclosed that the DIL ventured into fertilizer production because of the abundance of raw materials for its manufacturing in Nigeria as well as its certainty that demand for the product would continue to increase in Nigeria and the Sub Saharan Africa, which along with Brazil would eventually be the food basket of the whole world because of its arable land and availability of water resources.
“So, it is time that we focus on it and get it developed so that as the demand grows, we will be in a position to meet it,” he said.
Other reasons for setting up the fertilizer plant included the need to create employment, spearhead Nigeria’s food security and stem the tide of unrest and insecurity in the country.
Edwin said: “One of the key reasons we went into fertilizer production is employment generation, so that there will be peace and security in the country.”
He said that the fertilizer plant could create thousands of direct and indirect jobs in Nigeria, adding that 2,200 persons would be required to man over 1,000 trucks that would be required for effective distribution of fertilizer across the country.
He also hoped that the Dangote Group would be able to replicate its success in cement and food manufacturing in the petroleum and fertilizer sectors.
“We have done reasonably well in the food, cement automobile manufacturing and hopefully we will do the same in the petroleum and fertilizer industry,” he said
