SAN FRANCISCO, August 07, (THEWILL) – The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, says it has succeeded in resuscitating 11 fertilizer blending plants across the country, which has led to substantial reduction in the price of fertilizer, ended fertilizer subsidy and ensured the availability of the commodity.
The Sovereign Wealth Fund’s Managing Director, Uche Orji made this known in Abuja on Monday, while receiving the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who paid a courtesy visit to the agency.
“We have delivered over 6 million bags of NPK 20:10:10 at 30 per cent below the market price without subsidy. In the process of that, we have also created over 50,000 jobs. We have rehabilitated 11 blending plants that had either been under capacity or moribund,” he said.
Orji said six other moribund fertilizer blending plants across the country are at various stages of rehabilitation and will come on board by the end of the year.
He said through this intervention, the Fund has saved the government over N50 billion in subsidy this year, based on the fact that the government used to subsidise fertilizer to the tune of N6,000 per bag.
The Authority’s MD stated that the fertilizer initiative of the NSIA also assisted the government to conserve foreign exchange through the substitution of 65 per cent components of the fertilizer with local content.
He stated that the Fund eliminated fertiliser subsidy and middlemen in the distribution process by putting whistle blower telephone numbers on every bag to guard against arbitrary increase in the price of the commodity.
In his remarks, the Minister commended the Fund for its intervention in the critical sectors of the economy, pointing out that the present administration has succeeded in breaking the jinx in fertilizer supply to farmers.
“You have done three major things here. One is that you have crashed the price of fertilizer and this in itself is very significant because what we have today is that for the cost of one bag of fertilizer, you can get two bags of fertilizer.
“When you now look at the improvement in the type of fertilizer that you are now making available, it has helped us to increase yield from about 2 metric tonnes per hectare to 7 metric tonnes and I think in some areas up to 11. More remarkable to me is that we have been able to demystify the fertilizer conundrum,” he said.
Mohammed said the intervention by the Fund has also eliminated corruption and scandals in the procurement of fertilizer.
He observed that the interventions and the laudable efforts that the Fund is making, especially in the area of Agriculture, infrastructure and health, are ground-breaking and pledged to partner with the Fund in order to publicize its activities.
