The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has emphasised that its investment in promoting local farming was yielding results as production of made-in-Nigeria fertiliser had reached 2.22 million metric tonnes.

The Managing Director of the Authority, Mr Uche Orji in an interview on Monday in Abuja said among NSIA’s investment priority was to make fertiliser affordable to farmers, all year round.

“Prior to December 2016, Nigeria’s stock of blended Fertiliser was shipped into the country as fully finished products, even though Urea and Limestone, which constitute roughly two-thirds of the component of each bag are available locally. Knowing this, President Muhammadu Buhari approved a Presidential Fertiliser Initiative for the local production of blended NPK 20:20:10 Fertiliser.

“The objective of the project is to deliver commercially significant quantities of affordable and consistently high-quality fertiliser at the right price and in time to Nigeria’s over 500,000 farmers across the country. The target retail price regime at the time was between 50 per cent and 65 per cent of the prevailing market price,’’ he said.

Orji noted that after one year of running the programme, NSIA noted that import of finished fertiliser had reduced drastically.

“For the 2017 wet season, it is estimated that about N60 billion from the 2017 budgetary provisions for fertiliser was saved, while another saving of US$150 million was conserved from foreign exchange window. To date, the programme has contributed to the resuscitation of 14 moribund blending plants, which represents 55 per cent of total installed capacity in Nigeria.

“Also, more than six million bags of 50kg NPK 20:10:10 fertiliser has been produced locally, which have been distributed to farmers. The success of the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative is evidence enough that Nigeria can sustainability produce fertilisers locally at a reasonable price without subsidy. With the right model, any constraint can be addressed,’’ he said.

Orji said that as a result of its investment in fertiliser production, several thousand jobs had been created and the nation had saved a significant amount in foreign exchange and subsidy payments.

He reiterated that the NSIA had about 2.2 billion dollars in assets as at December 31, 2017.

The Presidential Fertiliser Initiative was introduced by of President Buhari in order to end fertiliser importation and the attendant impact on the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

It was designed to stimulate significant economic activities across the agriculture value chain as well as catalyse growth by meeting the fertiliser demand of farmers during the wet farming season.

Ahead of the 2017 farming season, Buhari inaugurated a special committee to look into and bridge the gaps in the production and distribution of fertilizer in Nigeria.

The committee comprised of the Governor of Jigawa State as Chairman, while the Managing Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Company and the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development as members.

Other members include the Chief of Staff to the President, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor and President of the Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN).

The NSIA was invited to provide technical support, as well as serve as managers of the initiative subsequent to the committee’s inauguration.

NSIA has invested more than US$286.4 million in the fertilizer blending project in partnership with FEPSAN.