CAP. OCP opens its first state-of-the-art fertilizer blending plant in Nigeria. Objective : stimulate local production and strengthen the country’s export capacity.
Par Africa Point
© DR / OCP
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Lhe war in Ukraine, by provoking a major food and energy crisis, has amplified the urgency for the world and even more for Africa – still dependent on the outside for its food needs – to strengthen its sovereignty. Since the outbreak of the conflict, agricultural commodities have seen their prices skyrocket, as a result of the combined effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, the global rise in the cost of transport and, more recently, the war in Ukraine. Alerts are multiplying on the worsening of hunger and poverty on the continent. In Nigeria, soaring prices are pushing more and more households below the waterline. According to the World Bank, the West African giant now has some 95 million poor people, almost half of the population.
In order to meet the challenges of food security, Nigeria has decided to meet its vital need for fertilizer. Especially since President Muhammadu Buhari has made food self-sufficiency one of his leitmotifs. In recent years, the most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa has turned to Morocco, which holds the largest phosphate reserves on the planet and is the third largest producer, behind China and the United States. The gas, which Nigeria abounds in – transformed into ammonia and combined with phosphoric acid imported from Morocco – is used to manufacture phosphate fertilizers.
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Cover the entire agricultural value chain
At work: the Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP), one of the world leaders in the sector, d95% owned by the Moroccan state. Dn the wake of the partnership between the Moroccan industrialist and the Nigerian government initiated in 2018, the first generation fertilizer mixing plant was inaugurated on Wednesday October 19 in Kaduna, in the north of Nigeria. Extending over 10 hectares, and endowed with a production capacity of 120 tons per hour, it is one of the three units planned, the other two are under construction in Ogun and Sokoto. “This facility is not only intended for the production of fertilizers, but also to have a profound impact on the country’s agricultural value chain,” said OCP Africa’s Managing Director, Mohamed Anouar Jamali. “OCP Africa is committed to contributing to the transformation of the food system on the continent, and Nigeria represents a strategic hub for our group,” he added. Ultimately, the three plants combined will produce 500,000 tonnes of fertilizer per year.
« Every new factory, every new store, every new industrial complex generates jobs and income that helps support families and alleviate poverty in our state,” enthused Kaduna State Governor Nasir Ahmad El -Rufai. “The factory also comes also expand our farmers’ access to fertilizers,” he added, noting that “this helps to improve the availability of a very essential component for agriculture.”
Valued at $1.3 million, the plant aims to help Nigerian farmers improve and increase their yields to achieve food security. OCP Africa is aiming for the long term and has therefore planned to make its Kaduna plant a space for sharing experiences, knowledge and know-how between the Group and actors in the agricultural sector in Nigeria.
This vast project is also part of the Office’s ambition to strengthen its investments throughout the African continent, for which OCP created a subsidiary in 2016.
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Fertilizers, a crucial lever for African agriculture
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the continent has 65% of the world’s unexploited arable land and half of African workers derive their income from agriculture. However, agricultural yields remain very low, estimated at around 1 ton and 2 tons per hectare. In Nigeria, this figure is around 1.5 tons. These low yields are explained by climatic factors, the underdevelopment of rural infrastructure, the inadequacy of post-harvest storage facilities and also by the fact that African farmers use little fertilizer, with the consequence of the loss of 30 % to 40% on each harvest. They are hampered in their use, because it can cost them dearly, they have to take into account the high margins of intermediaries and the costs of transporting fertilizers, the underdevelopment of rural infrastructure, etc. But, more than fertilizers, it is all the inputs that are currently lacking in the continent’s agricultural systems.
Beyond the construction of infrastructure, OCP Africa announced in mid-October that it wanted to make four million tonnes of fertilizer available to the continent from next year in order to secure future harvests. The Moroccan giant is also counting on the adoption by Africa of specialized fertilizers, that is to say, produced locally and adapted to the soils and the needs of the farmer, an emerging trend in global agricultural practices. The Moroccan phosphate giant believes that the efficient use of specialized fertilizers is one of the best ways to increase the productivity of farmers and therefore ensure food security and allow them to generate income.
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