Buhari commissions $2.5 billion Dangote Fertiliser plant in Lagos

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday in Lagos conducted the tape-cutting ceremony marking the commissioning of the Dangote Fertiliser Plant with a nameplate capacity of 3 million metric tonnes per annum in Ibeju Lekki.
The president inaugurated the $2.5 billion project in the presence of dignitaries including Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote Industries Limited, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele, and Minister of Trade and Investment Niyi Adebayo.
The urea and ammonia fertiliser plant is the biggest of its kind in the world and, combined with a 650,000 barrels per day oil refinery standing within its vicinity, will cost Africa’s richest man $17.5 billion, Mr Emefiele said at the event. The refinery is due for launch later this year.

The urea and ammonia fertiliser plant combined with a 650,000 barrels per day oil refinery standing within its vicinity, will cost Mr Dangote $17.5 billion.

Test run began at the facility in March 2020 in hope that production would commence later in the year. But not until the first quarter of 2021 did that happen on account of disruptions from the pandemic outbreak.
On his part, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, who commended Alhaji Aliko Dangote for dreaming big and actualizing it, emphasized that the fertilizer plant would not only increase revenue for Nigeria but also increase employment opportunities.
While thanking President Buhari for being present at the historic event, the host Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu also thanked the investor on behalf of the indigenous people of Ibeju Lekki for siting the project in their neighbourhood.

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Meanwhile, President of Dangote Group of Industries, Aliko Dangote, who identified lack of fertilizer supply to low productivity of agricultural products, noted that the new plant would increase local production of fertilizer and supply to small and medium-scale farmers.
He pledged to partner with state governments and farmers’ associations to increase food sustainability across the country.

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The Fertilizer Plant occupies five hundred hectares of land in the Lekki Free Trade Zone area of Lagos and it is expected to create over five thousand direct and indirect employment.