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In its efforts to boost Nigeria’s agricultural productivity and ensure food security, OCP Africa Nigeria has concluded plans to officially launch its agricultural plant established in Kaduna. This was revealed during a recent media roundtable in Abuja.
Speaking on the project launch billed to hold on October 18 in Kaduna, OCP Africa’s Deputy Managing Director, Programme Incubation (W/A), Caleb Usoh, said the Kaduna plant, valued at $14 million, is one of the company’s projects targeted at growing agriculture and helping the farmer produce better and become wealthier.
He said the Kaduna plant, which commenced production in February this year, is one of three agricultural hubs planned for Nigeria between now and May 2023. The other two include the Ogun State plant projected to become operational by January 2023 and the Sokoto plant proposed for launching between April and May 2023. The three plants combined, he added, will produce 500,000 metric tonnes of fertiliser annually.
Usoh also hinted that OCP Africa is equally investing with the Nigerian government to build an industrial platform in Akwa Ibom State valued at $1.5 billion.
According to him, each of the agricultural plants, known in the company’s parlance as Farm & Fortune Hubs, and targeted at reaching the farmers directly, comprises a fertiliser blending plant; an agribooster, a structure that groups farmers together, provides the group access to quality inputs and financing partners like banks to make them crop the same produce for an already identified market; Agripromoters who are given access to tricycles to do redistribution services around the communities; an app called Udongo, which captures farmers’ data thereby enabling direct relationship with them; the OCP School Lab project which provides soil analysis support for the farmers; borehole for free water for the communities; a training centre through which the farmers are brought abreast of improved farming practices and modern farming technologies; a model farm; storage space, and a greenhouse, among other facilities.
Usoh said, “I’m excited to see what value we’ve brought to bear on the landscape of industry and agriculture in Nigeria. The average yield in Nigeria per hectare is about 1.5 metric tonnes but today, with our activities, the average yield per hectare is about 3-4 metric tonnes. We are on a journey to make Africa self-sustaining in food production.”
Speaking on the impact of the Kaduna project on the country’s economy, especially job creation, OCP Africa’s Country Manager, Oluwatoba Asana, explained that, “the construction job in the Kaduna plant has added 300 jobs to the Nigerian economy and out of the 300 people who were involved in the construction work, only five were foreigners, the rest were Nigerians.
“In the operational stage, we have 200 people and none of them is a foreigner. All of them are Nigerians. And we are talking about Kaduna alone. When you scale it up to the work going on in Sokoto and then you add the project in Ogun State, you can see the volume of jobs created by OCP Africa through these three plants.”