Dangote Fertiliser has made Nigeria the third-highest country in terms of capacity additions on urea fertilizer, a report by Global Data says.
Mr Anthony Chiejina, Group Head, Corporate Communications, Dangote Industries Limited, made this known in a statement to newsmen on Monday in Lagos.
The report titled “Global Urea Capacity Additions by 2030”, also revealed that the completion of Dangote Fertiliser made Nigeria the third-highest country, after Iran and India in terms of capacity additions, with a capacity of 11.58 million tons per year (TPY) by 2030.
The report classified Dangote Industries Limited, Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited and Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited as the top three companies globally in terms of planned capacity addition to global urea production by 2030.
“With the coming on stream of Dangote Fertiliser Limited, global urea capacity is poised to see considerable growth over the upcoming years.
“It is expected to potentially increase from 222.96 million tons per annum (mtpa) in 2020 to 305.92 mtpa in 2030, registering a total growth of 37 per cent.
“Major capacity additions will be from two planned plants Dangote Group Lekki Urea Plant 1 and Dangote Group Lekki Urea Plant 2 with a capacity of 1.50 million tpy each by 2030,” it added.
Mr Devakumar Edwin, Dangote Group Executive Director, Strategy, Capital Projects and Portfolio Development, said the plant with the capacity to turn out more than 4,500 tons of urea per day would conveniently meet the local demand and even produce for exports.
“The 3.0 million metric tons of Dangote Fertiliser plant and around 88 planned plants are scheduled to come online, predominantly in Asia and Africa, over the next five years.
“We have the capacity to turn out 4,500 tons of Urea every day and this is a bulk application fertilizer.
“Each crop in Nigeria or globally will require Nitrogen and this is a rich fertilizer, having 46 per cent nitrogen.
“Currently the demand is less than one million tons and we alone can produce three million tons, so we can easily meet local demand and also produce for export to other West African countries,” he said.
Dangote Fertiliser Project is the largest Granulated Urea Fertiliser complex in the entire fertilizer industry history in the world with an investment of $2.5 billion capacity of 3 million tons per annum.
The fertiliser plant has created thousands of direct and indirect jobs in construction and related fields.
It would provide a major boost to the agricultural sector by significantly reducing the importation of fertiliser in Nigeria and ultimately removing the need for imports when plant is in full production.