Oladele Oduniyi
Aliko Dangote has said Africa will be self-sufficient in fertiliser within 40 months, on the basis of a planned expansion of his $2.5 billion plant on the outskirts of Lagos.
Africa currently imports over 6 million metric tons of fertiliser annually as it struggles to produce enough food in often challenging growing conditions.
The benefits of increasing domestic production would include reduced foreign exchange expenditure, which has been a major economic burden in Nigeria because of the weakness of the local currency.
“In the next 40 months, Africa will not import fertiliser from anywhere. We have a very aggressive trajectory right now. We want to put Dangote to be the highest producer of urea, bigger and higher than Qatar – give me 40 months,” Dangote said at the annual Afreximbank meeting in Abuja.
Dangote runs Africa’s largest granulated urea complex, which has annual capacity of 3 million tons, 37% of which it exports to the United States. It will need to double current output to achieve his ambition. Dangote has said he is not worried about the impact of Trump tariffs.