Fertilizer-Blending Plants |
A total of 20
fertiliser-blending plants will be revamped by September 2018, the
Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA has said.
Bloomberg reports
show that the authority has revamped 11 fertiliser-blending plants this
year, which delivered six million bags of fertiliser at 30 per cent
below market prices.
This is apparently
towards the implementation of President Muhammadu Buhari's initiative to
boost farming output and reduce the economy's dependence on oil.
The 11 plants which
delivered six million bags of fertiliser at 30 per cent below market
prices halted government subsidies, and created 50,000 jobs thereby
saving the government N50 billion ($139 million) in would-be subsidies
this year, the report showed.
Uche Orji of the
Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority in an interview,Wednesday,
disclosed that NSIA plans to rehabilitate nine other fertiliser-blending
plants within a year.
Mr. Orji also said
the government's contribution stands at $1.5 billion, with the rest
including funds owned by the institution and those managed for several
government agencies.
"At the moment, agriculture is our number one area of investment," Mr. Orji said
Nigeria's sovereign
wealth fund stood at $2 billion this month with the investment agency
seeking further growth through agriculture and the addition of asset
management, the report showed.
"That's the major line of conversation we are having with various agencies and various arms of the government," Mr. Orji said.
He disclosed that
the fund is considering oil and gas investments and would soon announce a
joint venture in health care with a partner but he declined to name.
Nigeria's economy
expanded in the second quarter by 0.55 percent as agricultural and oil
output increased, ending its worst slump in 25 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment