The President of dangote Industries Limited, Aliko dangote, has indicated that in the next two years, the firm would be exporting over 16,000 tons of fertilizer, which will equate to roughly $7m daily income to the Federal Government.
In a statement on Monday, dangote stated this when he paid a courtesy call to the offices of the Nigerian Ports Authority in Marina, Lagos. He stated that with the exports of fertilizer, the enterprise will be the primary source of foreign currency revenues in the nation.
“In the next two years, we will be exporting about 16,000 tonnes of fertiliser. When you speak about 16,000 tons of fertilizer, it’s around $6.5m to $7m income that will be going into the nation everyday. With our export strategy, our firm would be the biggest source of foreign currency revenues in Nigeria,” dangote said.
Africa’s wealthiest man also indicated that in a few weeks’ time, the firm will launch the shipment of coal.
“In the next couple of weeks, we will start exporting coal out of Nigeria. The refinery activities will not export less than 25 million tons of diverse products. We will also be shipping roughly 600,000 to 700,000 metric tons of polypropylene.
So when you are talking about export, we are going to be extremely big,” he said.
He underlined the need to engage with the NPA on the growth of the Marine and Blue Economy sector, with plans to guarantee the expansion of Nigeria’s export operations, noting that, as the greatest client of the NPA, it is crucial that the contact between NPA and DIL be preserved.
“I think this kind of interaction is very important for the growth of the industry. We talked quite a lot of stuff. We also addressed topics of how to expand the Marine and Blue Economy sector. And we have committed to work together for the welfare of Nigeria,” he stated.
dangote said that the extent of their activities at Lekki alone is roughly 240 ships of oil, with each ship carrying one million barrels.
“And then we will have products which now will amount to over 600 ships in a year. Then we also have our fertilizer business, which will be loading roughly eight ships. This is an operation that has never, ever been seen in the country,” he said.
While underlining the necessity of cooperating with the NPA, dangote noted that the company’s business would collapse if the NPA didn’t offer them the essential services.
“The NPA will need a lot of support from the Federal Government because they won’t be able to do these things with their own physical hands; they need equipment, and they need more tug boats. We will also be putting in a few words in the relevant places to make sure that NPA receives all the required help from the Federal Government,” he said.
In the realm of export, dangote stated, “We will soon be massively expanding our export operations. We are currently shipping cement out of Nigeria. We have an entire facility of six million tons for cement export. So the activities of Nigerian ports will quadruple in the next one or two years.”
Earlier, the Managing Director of the NPA, Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, revealed that the visit was for dangote to express gratitude for the benefits of the naira for the oil selling strategy of the Federal Government.
“dangote is here to show appreciation, especially regarding the establishment of the One-Stop-Shop policy on naira for crude deals, which is being coordinated by the NPA. He is here to acknowledge that the effort has helped enormously to creating a lot of efficiency in the field of transactions and operations between government agencies,” he said.
Dantsoho added that since the policy began in October 2024, the agency has operated 57 boats every month.
“The projected volume that dangote was looking at per annum was 600 vessels. If you accomplish 56 or 57 vessels in 12 months, you will realize that we are already performing larger than what they predicted. We shall continue to do our best with backing from the government. If all agencies of government can interact and be on the same dashboard, then efficiency in other areas of the economy would also be witnessed,” Dantsoho stated.
The NPA leader said that the government has authorized the National Single Window, adding that the NPA is 95 per cent ready for the Port Community System.
On the creation of new ports, Dantsoho remarked, “There are two ways you can handle capacity improvement/expansion, or deepen port capacity. You may do it on a brownfield, which is when you restore or rehabilitate existing ports, or on a greenfield, which is to develop new ports.
“The last time the government built a new port in Nigeria was in 1977, which was the Tincan Island Port. There is already clearance for the port upgrading of both Tincan and Apapa ports. We are hopefully looking at maybe the third quarter of this year to begin construction.”
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