The phosphate giant is investing in Africa as part of a bid to work towards food security for Africa’s growing population.
Rabat – Through the factory, OCP would send ammonia to Morocco’s plant in Jorf Lasfar, while Morocco will supply the Nigerian plant with phosphoric acid to produce fertilizers.
Moroccan leading phosphate producer OCP Group expects its ammonia plant in Nigeria to be operational by late 2023, Reuters quoted a senior OCP official as saying.
The head of OCP Nigeria Mohammed Hettiti told Reuters at that OCP is building the $1.3 billion plant in southeast Nigeria where the group has already identified gas suppliers.
The factory is part of OCP’s expansion plan into Africa. The phosphate giant aims to contribute to the sustainable development of African agriculture as well as working towards food security for Africa’s growing population.
The company has also shared plans to set up plants in Ethiopia and Ghana.
The Ghana plant will produce customized fertilizers for the African market and will be functional by 2024, with a capacity of 1 million tonnes. Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s plant will have a capacity of 3.8 million tonnes of fertilizers by 2025.
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Through the factory, projected to have an annual capacity of 750,000 tonnes of ammonia and 1 million tonnes of fertilizers, OCP plans to export ammonia to Morocco’s plant in Jorf Lasfar. Morocco in turn will supply the Nigerian plant with phosphoric acid to produce fertilizers, Hetiti added.
OCP provides 90% of Nigeria’s fertilizer demand and inked the plant-building agreement with Nigeria’s Sovereign Investment Authority in June 2018.
Hettiti added that fertilizer supply to Nigeria will triple from 1 million tonnes to 3 million in the next five years.
