Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, said a total of 20 fertilizer-blending plants would be revamped by September 2018.
Bloomberg reported that the 11 fertilizer-blending plants revamped by the authority this year produced six million bags of fertilizer at 30% below the usual market prices.
The report further said the revamping of the fertilizer plants was in a bid to implement President Muhammadu Buhari’s initiative to boost farming output and reduce the economy’s dependence on oil.
Senator Donates Fertilizer to Farmers
In addition, the 11 plants had stopped government subsidy on fertilizers, created 50,000 jobs and had saved the government N50 billion naira this year.
Uche Orji of NSIA in an interview disclosed that the Authority is making plans to restore nine other fertilizer-blending plants within a year.
According to him, the government sovereign wealth fund stood at $2billion this month and that the investment agency is looking to achieve more growth by employing the channels of agriculture and asset management. He revealed that the fund is also considering oil and gas investments.
Mr Orji said: “Although we’d still make investments in oil and gas and healthcare later, At the moment, agriculture is our number one area of investment”.
Nigeria’s economy as reported by the newspaper expanded in Q2 by 0.55% and agriculture and oil output also increased.
