Kaduna FSFC: Fertiliser plant or warehouse?
For some time now, trucks loaded with assorted fertilisers have taken over Nasarawa Road where the company is situated. Motorists plying the road spend extra time passing through the road because of the heavy traffic created by the trucks. Before the company was privatised in 2005 trucks were always seen moving fertiliser out of the […]
For some time now, trucks loaded with assorted fertilisers have taken over Nasarawa Road where the company is situated. Motorists plying the road spend extra time passing through the road because of the heavy traffic created by the trucks.
Before the company was privatised in 2005 trucks were always seen moving fertiliser out of the company to other destinations across the country, but now trucks are seen taking the commodity into the factory. The situation thus creates the impression that the company has become a warehouse rather than a blending plant.
Established in 1974, our correspondent gathered that the plant which started operation in 1976 was created by the federal government to boost the production of groundnut farming in the northern part of the country.
Then FSFC competed favourably with other companies in Kaduna South industrial area, in terms of employment generation.
The company was producing mainly Single Super Phosphate (SPP) mainly used by farmers in the north to grow tuber and leguminous crops like graoundnuts. As the fortunes of groundnut farmers in the north dwindled, the company’s also went down.
Under the privatisation programme of President Olusegun Obasanjo, the plant was acquired by Heiko Consortium in an open bid process for N700million on October 21, 2005. Although reports had it that the ownership of the company has since changed, our correspondent reports that at the time it was privatised, the acquisition was distributed between Heiko Nigeria Limited 26 per cent, Image Kraft Ltd, 25 per cent, Allwell Petroleum Ltd 20 per cent, Chemtrac Nig. Ltd, 15 per cent, Al-kay Nig. Ltd, nine per cent and Abdul M.Kanti, five per cent.
When Daily Trust visited the factory on Tuesday, June 4, this year, a top official confirmed that the company is now being used as a store.
“All these trucks you see at the entrance of the factory are third party arrangement. A firm is storing their imported product here and at end of the day, they will transport it from here to other states in the North,” the official told our reporter inside the factory.
According to the source, the new owners of the company are working hard to reposition it in order to assist in meeting the country’s fertiliser requirement.
“Our factory was first used as store in 2008 and now this is a third party arrangement. The first people that stored their wares here in 2008 have since finished evacuating them because we are repositioning this factory now,” the source said.
Corroborating the statement of the official, driver pof one of the truck (name withheld), who spoke to our correspondent at the entrance of the company, said they brought the fertiliser from Kiriki warehouse in Lagos.
“For months now we have been transporting fertiliser from Lagos State to this place. I don’t know the owners of the goods but we were told that the commodity was imported into the country and the owners are using this company as their store,” he said.
He said from the Kaduna Fertiliser Company, the commodities are transported to other states in the north. “We have brought in over 200 trucks and each carries a total of 600 bags. Now we were told that the same quantity is still in Lagos. They will still use us to transport the goods,” he said.
At the entrance of the company, our correspondent observed that food sellers were making brisk business as the truck drivers spend days before the commodity is evacuated from their vehicle. Throughout the stay in the factory our correspondent didn’t notice the sign that production was going on as obtainable in other blend plant.
Two days later, a board member of the company, Alhaji Ibrahim S. Birma invited our correspondent to the plant. And after interviewing him on the status of the company, he led our correspondent into the NPK plant of the coy. There our correspondent saw about 20 production staff working contrary to widespread believe that the factory is not working.
But Birma who later conducted our correspondent round the production units of the company disagreed that the plant has been turned to a warehouse.
“This place was privatised in 2005, it was sold to the Hekio Consortium, thereafter, a re-structuring was undertaken whereby we bounced it back into production and as part of this processes now, you will realise that we have been manufacturing SSP which is a component of NPK and other fertiliser requirement. The main product of this company is SSP but if you look at the requirement of the federal and state governments…like last year, only Kaduna and Adamawa states bought SSP.
“ So SSP is not like out of fashion but most of these states prefer NPK and happily on this same premises, we have an NPK blending plant which we now use the SSP with other components and these are the components that you have seen lying outside.
“So it’s not like we are turning it into a warehouse. We used to have a sulphuric acid plant; unfortunately at the point of privatisation, it was never handed to us. For now, we on our own are about to start that sulphuric acid which will give us that opportunity to have SSP component together with others, but so far we have been buying it from Duru in Lagos, or importing it.
“We are producing NPK fertiliser. NPK fertiliser uses imported raw material, that is, Urea. This you must import to produce NPK blended fertiliser. They are brought through shipment and these consignments have to be conveyed to the factory before they are blended. I invite you to go to the blending point, you can see how these three components are blended together and NPK is produced,” he said.
Commenting on the production capacity of the plant, the Managing Director, Engineer Kanti Abdul, said for now the company produce 300,000 metric tonnes of NPK per annum; for SSP 100,000 metric tonnes per annum and for alum, 30,000 per annum.
“The plant was original set up by the federal government in 1973/1976 to produce SSP fertiliser meant for root crops and legumes, especially groundnut. It was established to use a rock posting from Togo. Gradually in the early 80s, we through our own research finding located a deposit of this same phosphate in Sokoto State and that is what we are using now,” he said.