‘How Nigeria can attract more foreign direct investment’

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows are vital in promoting growth and development in the country. The Managing Director, OCP Africa Fertilisers Nigeria, Mohamed Hettiti, speaks on strategies to achieve food security in the country and other issues with Daniel Essiet.

Why are you interested in Africa’s food production growth?

- Join our Telegram Community -

 Over the period from 2005 to 2050, world population is projected to rise by 39 per cent  to reach 9.2 billion people. Most of this increase will occur in developing countries. In particular, African population is expected to double by 2050 to reach 2.5 billion people. Urbanisation will continue to grow at an accelerated rate. By then, about 70 per cent of the world population will be urban compared to 49 per cent currently. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), annual world agricultural production would need to increase by 70 per cent over the levels of 2005-2007 to satisfy the additional demand generated by population and income growth by 2050.

Agricultural production has been increasing steadily in Sub-Saharan Africa(SSA) over the past decades; however, average yield and cropping intensity have not improved much while during the same period, other global regions succeeded to double or triple their average yields. The low agricultural productivity in SSA is largely due to low use of fertilisers. Average fertiliser use in SSA is 12 kilogramme(kg)/hectare(ha) compared to the global average of 125 kg/ha. With over 10 per cent of the world’s population, SSA accounts for less than 1 per cent of global fertiliser demand. Africa is uniquely positioned to meet the challenge of feeding its people but also the planet and spur economic growth. It holds more than half of the world’s fertile yet unused cropland. It has abundant water resources, and plentiful agricultural labour. Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP) Group strongly believes in Africa’s potential and is committed to contributing to a sustainable development of agriculture in Africa. In particular, our organisation is promoting innovation in an effort to contribute towards productivity-led agricultural growth and improve farmer livelihood.

Why was OCP Africa created? 

- Advertisement -

A lot of effort is required to transform agriculture in Africa from subsistence to commercial farming. Contribution of governmental and public organisation, NGOs, the private sector and academia is required to improve productivity, profitability and sustainability for the farmers.

In this vein, OCP has created OCP Africa, a subsidiary that is dedicated to the continent. Our company aims at contributing to developing sustainable and innovative solutions to meet the challenge of a structured, efficient and sustainable agriculture in the Continent. Established in 2016, OCP Africa has opened offices in major countries, including Nigeria. We have developed several initiatives to provide our partners, producers and clients with the means to successfully access adapted and affordable products, services and supports, as well as logistic and financial solutions.

For instance, in Nigeria we are developing with the NSIA a world-class Basic Chemicals Platform to be operational by 2023 to produce ammonia and fertiliser. We are also building modern fertiliser blending plants which will serve as a model to our partners in Nigeria. All these investments and many more are geared towards developing African agriculture and helping the continent to meet its growing food needs.

We have a partnership with Mohammed VI Polytechnic University to strengthen the capacity of African farmers and leaders in many areas. Locally, we organise training for our partners, stakeholders and employees to enable them support the agricultural sector which is in line with OCP’s vision for resilient, responsibile and ethical agriculture.

What is your assessment of Nigeria and Morocco relations?

The relationship between Nigeria and Morocco is excellent. The economic partnership between African countries, called “Southsouth Cooperation” is for both countries a model of development characterised by a common understanding of the challenges and issues related to the emergence of their respective countries, which can bring socio-economic growth by providing appropriate responses to their growing population needs;

If you recall in December 2016, King Mohammed VI of Morocco visited President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa to facilitate discussions aimed at strengthening bilateral and economic ties between the two countries. This visitation led to the signing of 15 bilateral agreements, touching on trade and the oil sector. Part of this is a trans-Africa gas pipeline that runs  across coast of West Africa from Nigeria to Morocco, giving Nigeria potential to supply gas to Europe directly and in production of fertiliser by establishing production plant here in Nigeria to produce fertiliser to supply Nigeria and other West Africa countries.

Let me talk about the fertiliser production agreement. The government of Morocco is working closely with the Federal Government of Nigeria to promote agricultural revolution to fight hunger and poverty, create jobs and ensure industrialisation. Today, fertiliser is sold to Nigerian farmers at N5,500 per 50kg bag as against the regular N8,000 per bag in the retail market. In support of the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative, OCP supplies quality phosphate fertiliser to blending plants in Nigeria. At first, the signing of this agreement led to the resuscitation of 11 old blending plants in Nigeria and currently, fertiliser is being produced in about 20 blending plants in Nigeria. This has allowed partial import substitution by using local products such as urea and limestone and created hundreds of jobs, additional income and other added value for the people of Nigeria. The agreement has also led to the development of several new blending plants. Another relationship between Morocco and Nigeria lies in the development of multi-billion-dollar basic chemicals platform to produce ammonia and phosphate fertiliser production plants in Nigeria. This will leverage natural resources complementarily between the two countries namely Nigerian Gas and Moroccan Phosphate.

What is OCP?

OCP Group is Morocco owned company. It is a leading global fertiliser player with nearly a century of expertise in mining and fertiliser production. We specialise in the development of adapting fertilisers to soils and crops which contribute to the development of sustainable and resilient agriculture for the benefit of farmers around the world.

With a production capacity of 32 million tonnes of phosphate rock, 12 million tonnes of fertiliser at the processing sites in Morocco, global footprint and revenues of more than $5.5 billion (2018), the group has 23,000 employees and serves every key agricultural market across five continents. OCP remains in leading position around the world and is determined to support a genuine green revolution in Africa, and thus, the OCP Africa subsidiary was established.

The group’s new subsidiary, OCP Africa, steers OCP’s growth in the African market with an approach aimed to cover the entire value chain, including the construction of local fertiliser factories, the development of logistics distribution capacity, investment in research for the development of fertiliser suitable Africa soils and crops (customised fertiliser), the mapping of African soil fertility and every other related fertiliser need. OCP also built the African Fertiliser Complex in Jorf Lasfar, which was dedicated to service the African market, with a production capacity of 1 million tons of fertiliser. OCP Africa has presence in Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia and Madagascar.

It has built a fully-fledged university to provide training opportunities and help people reach their full potentials. In line with its mission to promote further research and development, in 2014, OCP launched the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, a world-class institution of higher learning in Benguerir. The university emphasises Research and Development (R&D) in areas critical to OCP’s development –such as mining, sustainable development and industrial management – and to the economic, social, higher education and environmental future needs of Morocco and her partners in Africa.

Can you talk about the Nigeria subsidiary which you oversee as Managing Director?

The Nigeria subsidiary (OCP Africa Fertilisers Nigeria Limited) was incorporated on July 12, 2016. OCP Nigeria has conducted several R&D project towards the development of tailored made fertiliser for major crops in Nigeria. One of this is the specialty fertiliser development for maize in Nigeria with ITTA. The project lasted for about three years and was conducted in eight major maize growing states, where 3,000 soil samples were picked and analysis for proper understanding of the soil components. After the soil analysis, three major fertiliser formulations were developed and tried across 1,500 plots in the eight stated after which two out of the three formulation are validated and ready to be launched into the market for maize soon. Other R&D projects include the cocoa fertiliser development and validation trials with The Sustainable Trade Initiative(IDH), Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria(CRIN), International Institute for Tropical Agriculture(IITA) and Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development(FMARD), the rice and soybean fertiliser trials with National Cereals Research Institute(NCRI) and the Irish potatoes fertilisers trials with Plateau State government, Agricultural Development Project (ADP), NRCRI and FMARD. Second is the aspect of farmer enabled projects. Example of such projects are Agribooster, OCP School Lab, OCP One Stop Shop. Lastly are its industrial projects. OCP Nigeria is currently developing two ultra-modern blending plants and setting an industrial chemical plant in Nigeria.

How can Nigeria attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) across all sectors?

Nigeria is blessed with natural resources, she is rich with its people and has an important market. The country has shown strong potential thanks to solid economic growth, large market, greater connectivity and improved position in global commodity markets. Nigeria has adopted several measures that improve its attractiveness to FDI.

What kind of innovations has OCP brought into the local market?

First is in the area of soil fertility maps, OCP has experience in developing a soil fertility map, which has been done for Morocco. This public and free tool is a database of geographic and scientific Moroccan soil, aiming to facilitate the establishment of a balanced and productive agriculture. OCP is promoting the use of the tool across sub-Saharan Africa. In a bid to begin soil fertility mapping, disseminating good agricultural practices and educate small farmers about the importance of the rational use of fertiliser and other farm inputs, OCP had launched in 2012 OCP School Lab (OCP Caravan). This is a mobile school and laboratory that goes to most remote farming communities to conduct soil-testing using latest innovations (X-rays, big data and machine learning) and  conduct interactive training sessions using pedagogical tools by providing live information on soil needs. This allows for offering a full set of agric-services and fertiliser recommendation to small holder farmers free of charge. The OCP School Lab Caravan has been deployed in Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana and other places. Currently in Nigeria, we have five of these lab caravan conducting free soil sampling, free soil testing, free soil analysis, free farmers training and free fertiliser recommendations in Nigeria. We have reached more than 150,000 farmers so far.

Another innovation is what we call OCP Agribooster Programme. This programme has been launched in many countries in Africa. This programme was developed to build-up a complete ecosystem around farmers to boost their development and income for them to be a suitable farmer. This programme offers a complete bundle to farmers, such offer includes farm inputs such as seeds, fertiliser, crop protection products, agricultural equipment and others. It also offers financial and insurance services, training, monitoring and extension services and market offtake to facilitate farm produce sales.

All these elements allow farmers to boost their yields and increase income and be sustainable farmer by also creating an economically viable and sustainable  cycle for all stakeholders in the value chain.

Another innovation is the OCP One Stop Shop. At OCP, we understand that fertiliser and farm input distribution is very important in the use of fertiliser, just like fertiliser production especially in Nigeria. So, we came with the project called OCP One Stop Shop, which is aimed at developing retail channels for basic farm inputs in under-served locations/market with huge agricultural potentials. This shop ensures distribution of farm input, train farmers on good agricultural practice and extension services. This is also aimed at unlocking the market demand for farm and help in food production and sustainability. OCP One Stop Shop was also  launched in Nigeria in 2018, with our first Shop in Lambata community, Niger State.

Another area of innovation is the encouragement and support for agricultural students in the universities. In 2017, OCP Nigeria began sponsorship of students in Faculty of Agricultural of Kaduna State University (KASU) by paying student’s tuition fee and giving grants for their research and development studies. Also, the Nigeria subsidiary has granted research grant to the same university and its currently planning to develop a state-of-the-art laboratory for the faculty of agriculture.

We are promoting science and innovation to help farmers by developing adapted fertiliser to satisfy Africa’s specific soil characteristics and crop needs. OCP has developed and launched new fertiliser products specifically adapted to Africa’s needs. Those new products are the result of extensive research on agronomy conducted by OCP. Examples are the maize project with IITA.

Speak specifically  on the Africa Fertiliser Complex?

His Majesty King Mohammed VI inaugurated the Africa Fertiliser Complex, a fertiliser production plant dedicated to secure the supply of quality fertilisers to the African continent. The complex was inaugurated in February 2016. It is a fully integrated plant, and has a production capacity of 1 MT of fertilisers per year.

What is OCP’s aspiration for expansion in Nigeria?

We are currently working on numerous projects across Nigeria to boost agriculture in the country. OCP Nigeria is aiming at developing comprehensive and holistic development projects and complement efforts of other market players (research institutes, NGO) to address productivity and sustainability challenges along the whole agricultural value chain.

OCP Nigeria aims at securing the supply of quality fertilisers to Nigerian players, support initiatives to strengthen distribution capabilities of the supply chain, work on agricultural extension services through notably the OCP School Lab Programme; secure involvement of value chain stakeholders through notable agribooster programme and support capacity building. We are willing to extend the programme for the years to come.

OCP Africa says it will create two fertiliser plants valued at $1 billion this year in Nigeria to support the local production of fertiliser. How far has the project gone now?

You are referring to the basic chemical platform which budget exceeds $1.5 billion. On the blending plants, engineering is now finalised and we are in the process of starting construction of the plants.

- Download GistAfri App on Google Playstore -

RELATED GIST

- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
- Join us on Telegram -

Latest

- Advertise Here -