Nigeria / Morocco: OCP, Nigeria Sign Agreements to Advance Fertilizer Production Partnership

Morocco’s state-owned phosphate and fertilizer group OCP is moving forward with its commitment to assist the Nigerian government to achieve its goal of developing its agricultural industry.

Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources Timpire Martin Sylva is leading his country’s delegation for a working trip that will run until March 6th as part of the partnership between OCP and Nigeria’s government.

During the visit, the Nigerian delegation and OCP will discuss the “next steps” regarding the multipurpose industrial platform in Nigeria.

The Moroccan fertilizer group wants to see the ammonia plant in Nigeria operational by 2024.

As part of the project, OCP and Nigeria seek to produce 750,000 tons of ammonia and one million tons of phosphate fertilizers annually by 2025.

On Monday, OCP and the Nigerian delegation signed a set of agreements to boost cooperation in the fertilizer sector.

The signing ceremony took place at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UMP6).

The agreements include a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between OCP Africa, the Fertilizer Producers & Suppliers Association of Nigeria ((FEPSAN), and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).

The agreement seeks to “commit the second phase of the Nigerian Presidential Fertilize Initiative,” OCP said in a statement.

The initiative was established following the visit of King Mohammed VI to Nigeria in December 2016.

The principal aim is to allow Nigerian farmers to access high-quality fertilizer at affordable prices to improve the agriculture industry.

NSIA and OCP Africa signed a second agreement to create a Joint Venture Company (JVC), which will be tasked to oversee the development of an industrial platform.

The platform will produce ammonia and fertilizers in Nigeria.

The third cooperation agreement is a MoU between OCP, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and NSIA.

The agreement seeks to evaluate the opportunity of equity investment by both the NNPC in the JVC and for its support on gas.

The fourth agreement links OCP, Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN), the NNPC, the Gas Aggregation Company Nigeria (GACN), and the NSIA.

The agreement will be on gas supply for the industrial platform.

The fifth agreement covers a memorandum of understanding between OCP Africa, the Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria and the NSIA on land acquisition, administrative facilitation, and common agricultural development projects in the Akwa Ibom State.

The agreements seek to allow Nigerian farmers to access quality fertilizers in line with their needs at competitive prices.

“They also aim to strengthen the solid partnership between OCP Group and the different institutions in the gas industry in Nigeria.”

The agreements reaffirm OCP’s“unwavering support” for the agricultural development initiatives in Nigeria, the Moroccan company said in its statement.

The group expressed satisfaction with its partnership with Nigeria, saying it first partnered with the Fertilizer Producer Producers & Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FESPAN) under the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) in 2016.

The OCP expanded the cooperation to the entire agricultural value chain.

The collaboration also covers farmer support initiatives and supply chain development projects.

OCP’s investments and projects in Nigeria have increased local production capacity to over 5 million tonnes per year.

In recent years, the Moroccan company expanded its projects across Africa. The company has considerably contributed to continental efforts in the field of smart and sustainable agriculture.

Some of OCP Africa’s recent initiatives include the launch of a platform to ensure expertise sharing between African researchers and partners on soil mapping.

The project is part of OCP’s actions to promote the creation of decision-support tools in agriculture across Africa.