Indorama fertilizer important in FG’s Agric. Transformation Agenda, says Minister

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbe, has said that Indorama fertilizer was very important to achieving the Federal Government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda, aimed at boosting food production across the country.

Speaking during his visit to Indorama’s world-class fertilizer plant in Port Harcourt, the Minister said that the Federal Government would help to tackle whatever challenges the company faced to ensure that it supplied the product to farmers across the country without delays.

In a press statement signed by Dr. Jossy Nkwocha, Head of Corporate Communications, and released weekend, Chief Ogbe commended Indorama Eleme Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited for keying into the FG Presidential Initiative on Fertilizer, which was aimed at bringing down the cost of fertilizers across the country.

In his own speech, the Managing Director of Indorama-Nigeria, Mr. Manish Mundra, informed the Minister that Indorama was committed to supplying 360,000 metric tonnes of Urea to blending plants which they used in producing NPK fertilizers.

The Managing Director also told the visitors that the company was committed to its vision of building Africa’s largest petrochemicals and fertilizer hub in Nigeria and investing a total of over $5.8 billion by the Year 2022.

Chief Ogbe who was accompanied on the facility visit by the Minister of State, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, and the Commissioners for Agriculture of Rivers and Bayelsa States, Mrs. Onimim Jack and Mr. Doodei Week, respectively, stated that the success of Indorama fertilizer was the success of the Federal Government and the people of Nigeria at large.

“The federal Government wants to make sure that Nigerians have enough food to eat. We can only achieve that objective with enough fertilizer in the country. That’s why we consider Indorama as a partner in progress in achieving food sufficiency in the country,” Chief Ogbe said.

The Ministers and their entourage were conducted round the fertilizer plant which has capacity to produce 1.5 million metric tonnes of Urea per annum but currently produced only 1.1 million metric tonnes due to short supply of feedstock (gas).

They visited the state-of-the-art Control Room, the Ammonia and Urea units of the plant, as well as the Bagging Section where the Ministers touched the Urea Granules and saw the bagging process.