NAIJAFEED

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Nigerian billionaire Dangote launches $2.5 billion fertilizer plant as prices soar

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote opened a 3-million-tonne fertilizer plant at a cost of $2.5 billion on Tuesday to target African and foreign markets even as the war in Ukraine has driven up prices for natural gas, a key ingredient for making urea.

Dangote said exports from the plant will go to Brazil, which relies heavily on Russia for imports of fertilizer. Shipments will also go to the United States, India and Mexico, he said at the launch.

Fertilizer prices have been rising at a time when planting usually picks up around the world, especially after Russia, the world's biggest exporter of fertilizer, invaded Ukraine last month. The war has also disrupted shipping.

The plant, commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari and located at the Lekki Free Zone in Lagos State, is designed to produce 3 million tonnes of urea per year and supply all the major markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

Many in Nigeria hope the Dangote plant will help alleviate chronically low crop yields in Africa's most populous country, partly due to insufficient access to fertilizer.

Agriculture accounts for 20% of Nigeria's gross domestic product, with crop production contribution the highest with the farming subsector.

However, low fertilizer production and the high cost of importing fertilisers has reined in seed production. Fertilizer consumption in Nigeria ranks below its African peers.

According to the World Bank, Nigeria consumed around 20 kg of fertiliser per hectare of arable land in 2018, compared with 73 kg in South Africa and 393 kg in China.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has barred the use of its foreign exchange for fertiliser imports as part of a raft of controls aimed at boosting domestic production.

Other producers in Nigeria include Notore (NOTORE.LG), which has the capacity to produce 500,000 metric tonnes per annum of urea, and Singapore-owned Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Ltd, which plans to double its annual output of urea fertilizer to 2.8 million tonnes.

Reuters

Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote is building the world's largest refinery in Nigeria

Dangote Refinery to employ over 250,000 Nigerians

Video - Aljazeera speaks with Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote

Friday, March 18, 2022

Video - Nigeria bans foreigners from buying farm produce directly from local famers

Nigeria has banned foreigners from purchasing agricultural products directly from local farmers. This means that only registered local buyers can purchase from farm gates - and then sell to foreigners. The government says the policy is geared towards mitigating the exploitation of local farmers. CGTN's Kelechi Emekalam reports.

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Video - Nigeria plans to spend tens of billions to modernise railway network

Nigeria is planning to spend tens of billions of US dollars to modernise its railway network. The overhaul could give remote parts of the country a huge economic boost. Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris reports from Lagos.

Al Jazeera

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Increased Power Shortages Compounds Nigeria’s Fuel Scarcity Woes

Nigerians are experiencing even less reliable electricity supply than usual amid gasoline scarcity that has caused long queues at gas stations for over a month in the West African nation.

In recent weeks, provision of power to Nigerian homes and businesses has been especially patchy, leaving them ever more reliant on expensive and polluting generators that run on gasoline and diesel.

The deterioration in the electricity supply is due to “very low power generation” by the nation’s power plants, the state-owned Transmission Company of Nigeria, or TCN, said last week. More than a dozen gas-powered facilities were either not operating or producing limited output at various points during the past two months, it said.

Nigerians are already contending with shortages of gasoline that have resulted in long queues outside filling stations for more than a month since the authorities rejected imported cargoes of the fuel for containing too much methanol.

More than 40% of the country’s approximately 200 million people don’t have access to grid electricity, according to the World Bank. Those that are connected to the grid endure frequent outages forcing them to rely on self-generated backup power with an estimated capacity of 40,000 megawatts.

The generation companies acknowledge they are struggling but attribute their current difficulties to the dilapidation of Nigeria’s transmission infrastructure -- the national grid collapsed twice in two days this week -- and years of being underpaid for their power. While the electricity plants could produce an average of about 7,100 megawatts between 2016 and 2021, the grid was able to receive less than 3,800 megawatts over the same period, according to the Association of Power Generation Companies, or APGC.

The power stations have lost out on 1.7 trillion naira ($4.1 billion) since 2015 by being unable to dispatch this “stranded capacity,” APGC Executive Secretary Joy Ogaji told reporters on March 13. The state-owned Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Co., or NBET, also owes the generation companies “huge sums” for electricity that was sent out to the grid and supplied to customers.

While data about the outstanding arrears owed to the generation firms wasn’t available, Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies paid NBET, which buys power from generating firms and sells it on, less than 30% of invoices worth 730 billion naira in 2020. This leaves NBET unable to remit full payment to its suppliers.

The government transferred most of Nigeria’s generation and distribution assets to private ownership in 2013, while retaining the transmission network and NBET under state control. The country’s privatization agency said last year it would propose the unbundling and sale of the TCN.

ByWilliam Clowes

Bloomberg

Video - Nigeria's electricity generation crisis continues