By John Oba Abuja Th e newly launched Presidential Fertiliser Initiative will save the federal government about $200 million of foreign exchange. Th e President of Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN), Mr. Th omas Etuh disclosed this yesterday while monitoring the fertiliser project in Kaduna State, adding that it was a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model meant to reduce fertiliser cost to N5,500.
He explained that the project was aimed to produce 1 million Metric Tons of NPK fertiliser for 2017 wet season farming and 500, 000 Metric tons for 2017 dry season farming. Major partners in this project are the Presidential Committee on Fertiliser and the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA). Etuh said: “We are monitoring some of the plants of the presidential fertiliser initiative which is a public private partnership. Some of you will remember that FEPSAN signed an agreement with OCP of Morocco to order phosphate as one of the raw materials for production of fertiliser. “We only import 37 per cent of the inputs we don’t have in Nigeria which is Urea and Limestone to get fertiliser to the farmers. “From that 14th December, 2016 to 14th February, 2017, we gave farmers free gift. Th ey start to receive fertiliser at N5,500.
Agro-dealers also get theirs, when they come to a plant like this, they will pay N5000, they are supposed to pay for transport and others so they will sale for N5,500. “Th is is a PPP arrangement; there is no subsidy at all. We will save government in six months about N60 billion and save government about $200 million in foreign exchange.” In his remarks, Managing Director, Fertiliser and Chemical Company, Kaduna, Prekash Pandya said the fertiliser processing plant has about 500, 000 capacity but will blend about 300, 000 metric tons for the presidential initiative. He described the intervention as beautiful, such that it created jobs across the value-chain to the end users.
