Nigeria now has a fertilizer dashboard that collects the data on fertilizer production, availability, pricing and retailing among others.
Speaking at the launch of the dashboard in Abuja, the nation’s capital, Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ernest Umakhihe said stakeholders can now keep track of trends in the fertilizer industry. He explained the importance of the dashboard and what it means to farmers and the Nigerian economy.
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Umakhihe noted that significant progress has been made in the last few years to unlock the enormous potentials of the fertilizer industry.
He added that the private sector has been positioned to drive the industry through the complete liberalisation of the sector and the banning of the importation of finished mineral fertilizers that contain 2 or 3 of the fertilizer elements, namely nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium that should not enter into the country.
In his words “The implementation of the Fertilizer Act and the regulations have commenced with the registration of the fertilizer operators. In addition, we have started developing a system that would capture production, sales, carryover stocks, price collection, lab assessments, upgrades, among others”.
Umakhihe said to facilitate swift data collection, the Ministry has established the fertilizer Inspectorate Unit which will in addition to working as foot soldiers in the implementation of the Fertilizer Act and regulations at the state level, will also be collecting fertilizer data.
For the Visualising Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture VIFAA Project, the manager in Nigeria, Beverley Hatcher-Mbu, said the dashboard gathers key data on Nigeria’s, fertilizer sub-sector and makes it easy to access, and public sector, can use it.
According to her, “The key outcome is that if everybody starts from the same point with their data then they can make the same kinds of decisions.
On his part, The Executive Secretary of the Fertilizer Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria, FEPSAN, Gideon Negedu said the fertilizer dashboard initiative will address the challenges of supply, and demand of the product in Nigeria. He explained that “the fertilizer dashboard is user friendly, which means both local and rural farmers can access it”. “The aim is to ensure that farmers have direct access to data information and the happenings within the fertilizer industry in the country.
The fertilizer dashboard for Nigeria was launched by the Federal Government in partnership with the Development Gateway and other stakeholders under VIFAA project.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
