With the fertilizer facility, the Dangote Group has a plan to expand in step with Nigeria’s fertilizer needs, estimated by the company to reach 5-7m tonnes/year in due course.
But the international situation has also proved advantageous to the timing of the launch.
What better time to launch a fertilizer/agro plant than when global prices are at their record highs? That’s exactly what Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, did.
On March 22, Dangote’s $2.5bn plant in Nigeria’s economic capital, Lagos, started production. The 3m tonnes/year capacity will meet local demand of 1.5m tonnes/year and have a large surplus for export. Producing both urea and ammonia fertilizers, it’s the world’s third-biggest plant and second-biggest producer of urea-based fertilizer.
Global prices have been on the rise since 2020, surging as much as 70% in the past year.
The prices have risen nearly 30% since the start of 2022, following last year’s 80% surge. Soaring prices are driven by a confluence of factors, including surging input costs, supply disruptions caused by sanctions (Belarus and Russia), and export restrictions (China).
