Setting up of the largest fertilizer plant in Africa by Dangote shows Africa has come of age

This week we have received the best news ever coming from the African continent, which was the setting of by the richest African and the 84^th world richest man Aliko Dangote of the Dangote fertilizer plant. This fertilizer plant has been touted as the largest in the continent that sits on 500 hectares (1,235 acres) of land on the outskirts of Lagos. The $2.5 billion fertilizer plant has an initial annual production capacity of 3 million metric tons of urea fertilizer, according to information on the Dangote website.

The Dangote Fertilizer plant has developed a unique partnership framework with Farmer Associations, Corporate Farms, NPK Blenders, NGO and or development partners and State Governments all over Nigeria, as well as governments across Africa and beyond who are looking for sustainable approach to improve soil and farm yields. The Dangote fertilizer plant will address the looming fertilizer supply in the world as the Russian- Ukranian war continues. Russia accounts for 1/5 of the global fertilizer exports in 2021. There are many advantages of the Dangote fertilizer plant including four main ones. The first benefit is the creation of five thousand direct and indirect jobs. This is good coming from the reports by the African Development Bank that shows that ten to twelve million young people enter the job market yearly but only three million formal jobs are created annually.

Secondly is the increased supply of fertilizer to the continent that is still reliant on agriculture as a main livelihood of its people. More than sixty percent of the Sub Saharan African people are small holder farmers and about twenty three percent of the Sub Saharan African GDP is derived from agriculture. The ease of access to farm inputs like fertilizers improves the farmers productivity and hence more growth. Sub Saharan Africa will need eight times the fertilizer consumption in addition to six times improved seeds and increased investments in irrigation. We cannot develop as a continent if we are not food secure. Food security will make us start thinking of going to the space and enhancing more innovations. Thirdly it boosts manufacturing efforts needed for the continent to industrialize and create more jobs. Fourth it reawakens the giant in the African continent that has all the resources for takeoff.