Kano to take delivery of N250m fertiliser plant in two weeks

The Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje has said the state will take delivery of an integrated fertiliser N250 million blending plant in two weeks.

Ganduje disclosed this during the inspection of the Presidential ?Fertiliser Initiative (PFI) at the Kano State Agricultural Supply Company (KASCO), Kano.

The Governor said the initiative has reduced corruption in the system, created about 200 jobs and encouraged farmers to increase their productivity.

According to him “in this programme, the price is stable and is much better. Farmers already know the price. So the initiative is a good one and as a result, we are expecting a new line in the next two weeks.

“The issue of subsidy was what killed fertiliser production in Nigeria. You sit down in the house instead of going to the farm,” he said.

Earlier in his remarks, President of Fertiliser Producer and Suppliers Association of Nigeria, Thomas Etuh said KASCO was selected among the fertiliser blending company due to their capacity.

He disclosed that KASCO received about N20 billion worth of goods for production of the input and is expected to make a return of N2 billion in six months.

In another development, The President of Fertiliser Producer and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN), Thomas Etuh has said that the newly launched Presidential Fertiliser Initiative will save the Federal Government about $200 million of foreign exchange.

FEPSAN President disclosed that the current drive in fertilizer production in Nigeria which gives room for Public Private Partnership, will reduce the price of fertilizer to N5,500 per bag.

While monitoring the fertiliser project in Kaduna State, Etuh  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.

According to him, as at December 2016, there were five fertiliser blending plants in the country, running at 10 per cent capacity but had been increased to 32 blending plants.

Major partners in this project are the Presidential Committee on Fertiliser and the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).