The President of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has revealed that the company is set to begin exporting nearly 16,000 tonnes of fertiliser daily within the next two years—a development projected to generate up to $7 million in revenue for the Federal Government each day.
This announcement was made during Dangote’s courtesy call to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) headquarters in Marina, Lagos, on Monday. He noted that with the planned fertiliser exports, his firm would become a key contributor to Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves.
“In the next two years, we will be exporting about 16,000 tonnes of fertiliser. When you talk about 16,000 tonnes of fertiliser, it’s about $6.5m to $7m revenue that will be coming into the country daily. With our export programme, our company will be the major supplier of foreign exchange earnings in Nigeria,” Dangote said.
The billionaire businessman further disclosed that Dangote Industries would soon commence the export of coal, broadening its commodities trade portfolio.
“In the next couple of weeks, we will start exporting coal out of Nigeria. The refinery operations will not export less than 25 million tonnes of various products. We will also be exporting about 600,000 to 700,000 metric tonnes of polypropylene. So when you are talking about export, we are going to be very big,” he said.
He also stressed the importance of working hand-in-hand with the NPA to foster the growth of the Marine and Blue Economy sectors, noting that sustaining a strong relationship between Dangote Industries and the ports authority was crucial due to the company’s extensive use of the nation’s ports.
“I think this kind of interaction is very important for the growth of the industry. We discussed quite a lot of issues. We also discussed issues of how to deepen the Marine and Blue Economy sector. And we have agreed to work together for the benefit of Nigeria,” he stated.
According to him, the company’s massive operations at Lekki alone involve close to 240 crude oil vessels, each carrying one million barrels, with an additional 600 ships transporting refined products annually, and eight ships dedicated to fertiliser exports.
“And then we will have products which now will amount to over 600 ships in a year. Then we also have our fertiliser operation, which will be loading almost eight ships. This is an operation that has never, ever been seen in the country,” he said.
Emphasizing the need for strong institutional support, Dangote pointed out that without critical services from the NPA, the company’s logistics chain could face serious setbacks.
“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 necessary quarters to make sure that NPA gets all the necessary assistance from the Federal Government,” he said.
He added that cement exports are already ongoing from a dedicated six-million-tonne facility, and with further expansion plans underway, activities at Nigerian ports are expected to increase significantly in the near future.
“We will soon be massively expanding our export operations. We are already exporting cement out of Nigeria. We have a whole factory of six million tons for cement export. So the operations of Nigerian ports will double in the next one or two years,” he said.
Earlier, NPA Managing Director, Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, stated that Dangote’s visit was to express gratitude for the Federal Government’s naira-for-crude policy, which has improved operational synergy among relevant government agencies.
“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 appreciate that the initiative has contributed immensely to achieving a lot of efficiency in the area of transactions and operations between government agencies,” he said.
Dantsoho noted that since the implementation of the policy in October 2024, the agency has managed 57 vessels per month, surpassing initial expectations.
“The projected volume that Dangote was looking at per annum was 600 vessels. If you do 56 or 57 vessels in 12 months, you will see that we are already doing bigger than what they projected. We will continue to do our best with support from the government. If all agencies of government can collaborate and be on the same dashboard, then efficiencies in other sectors of the economy will also be witnessed,” Dantsoho stated.
He further announced that the Federal Government has endorsed the National Single Window project and that the NPA is almost ready to fully launch the Port Community System.
Speaking on infrastructural development, Dantsoho explained the two approaches to boosting port capacity: upgrading existing infrastructure (brownfield) and building new facilities (greenfield). He recalled that Nigeria’s last new port, Tincan Island, was established in 1977.
“There are two ways you can handle capacity improvement/expansion, or deepen port capacity. You can do it on a brownfield, which is when you renovate or rehabilitate existing ports, or on a greenfield, which is to build 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 approval for the port modernisation of both Tincan and Apapa ports. We are hopefully looking at maybe the third quarter of this year to commence construction.”
