Morocco’s Cheriffian Office for Phosphates ‘OCP’ group inaugurated earlier this week its first industrial fertilizer building plant in the city of Kaduna located in Northern Nigeria.
The plant extends on an area of about 10 hectares, and has a blending unit with a production capacity of 120 tons per hour, a storage unit of 25,000 tons, a modern training center dedicated to various partners, and a laboratory equipped with the latest analysis technologies.
This aims to ensure product quality control, analysis, classification, and characterization of soils, as well as the creation of an exemplary farmhouse for carrying out agricultural experiments and training farmers.
The inauguration took place in the presence of Mohamed Anouar Jamali, Director General of OCP Africa, Mohamed Hettiti, Vice President of West Africa and Director General of OCP Africa Nigeria, and Nasser Ahmed Rafi, the governor of Kaduna State, Nigeria.
OCP’s Director-General stated that “this facility is not dedicated to a single goal, which is the production of fertilizers, instead it aims for a profound impact on the country’s agricultural value chain.”
He highlighted OCP Africa’s commitment to contributing to the transformation of the food system on the continent.
Opening the industrial facility in Nigeria is a dynamic move considering that the country represents a strategic pole for OCP.
“The efficient use of fertilizers is one of the best ways to increase farmers’ productivity,” said Hettiti, Vice-President of West Africa and Director-General of the OCP in Nigeria.
The blending unit in Kaduna is a center of excellence and service provision for OCP Group partners and Nigerian farmers who wish to improve and increase soil performance in order to achieve food security.
The industrial facility will offer a space for sharing experiences, knowledge, and expertise between the OCP Group and actors in the Nigerian agricultural sector.
This plant is the first of three fertilizer blending units that will be developed in Nigeria with the other two in the cities of Ogun and Sokoto.
This falls within the framework of a partnership between OCP Group and the Nigerian government to support and develop Nigeria’s agriculture.
The “Presidential Fertilizer Initiative” is a project set to develop a multi-use industrial land for the production of ammonia and fertilizers, which will enable Nigeria to localize fertilizer production by valuing its local natural resources and benefiting from the Moroccan phosphate supply.
“Every new factory, new unit, and new industrial complex provides jobs and incomes that support families and reduce poverty in our state,” said Nasser Ahmed Rafi, the governor of Kaduna.
He pointed out that establishing a fertilizer production plant in Kaduna State extends the benefit of Nigerian farmers from fertilizers, noting that this contributes to improving the availability of a very important component of agriculture.
OCP Group signed a partnership agreement with the Association of Fertilizer Producers and Distributors in Nigeria, back in 2016, within the framework of the “Presidential Fertilizer Initiative” supported by the Nigerian Sovereign Fund. This cooperation includes all agricultural value chains.
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