Nigeria's Dangote to build Africa's biggest fertilizer plant

by Emele Onu

Dangote Group of Nigeria plans to build what it says will be Africa’s biggest fertilizer plant in the country’s southern Edo state, with production scheduled to start by 2014.

The company signed an agreement with Saipem SpA (SPM)’s Nigerian unit to build the plant, which will include two trains, each with the capacity for 3,850 metric tons a day of urea, the Lagos-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. The plant will also produce 2,200 tons of ammonia a day.

The plant will make Nigeria “self-sufficient in fertilizer production and even have the capacity to export,” Aliko Dangote, president of the Dangote Group, was quoted as saying in the statement.

While Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer, agriculture, dominated by subsistence farming, contributes the biggest share of the country’s gross domestic product at 41 percent, according to data from the statistics office. Improved fertilizer supply will provide added boost to agricultural productivity, Dangote said.

Bloomberg