Prior to December 2016, Nigeria’s stock of blended fertiliser was shipped into the country as fully finished products, even though Urea and Limestone, which constitute roughly two-thirds of the component of each bag, are available locally. On 23 December 2016, His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCON approved the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative for the local production of one million metric tonnes of blended NPK fertiliser for the 2017 wet farming season. Those were the overarching inception performance metrics. However, the assignment was principally to procure the 4 constituent raw materials for NPK fertiliser at a reasonable price, blend these locally to produce NPK fertiliser at a much-reduced cost and delivered the finished products to farmers at about ₦5,500.
The project was designed to deliver the underlisted objectives:

1. Stimulate local production of NPK fertiliser by resuscitating moribund fertiliser plants, the operationalisation of which would create direct and indirect jobs;
2. Make fertiliser available to Nigerian farmers at affordable prices and in time for the 2017 wet season farming and beyond;
3. Enable the projected annual saving of US$200 million (foreign exchange savings) by maximizing local content;
4. Facilitate savings in budgetary provisions of over ₦60 billion for fertiliser subsidy annually;
5. Enhance food security through enabling the increase in output/food production;
6. Reduce food-induced inflation; and,
7. Promote economic activities across the agriculture value chain.

• From 2017 to 2020, the program was implemented by NSIA through its wholly owned subsidiary, NAIC-NPK Limited and has delivered all the objectives above.
• To make the program more sustainable following its notable successes and transformative impact over the period, Mr. President approved the restructuring of the program starting in the 2021 cycle. The approval limits the role of NAIC-NPK to bulk discounting of raw materials to the blenders, thereby taking the company’s role upstream.
• Following the restructuring and divestment, the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) are now the owners of the NAIC-NPK which has been re-named PFI-NPK.
• PFI-NPK is well underway to deliver 1million MT equivalent of NPK in the 2022 PFI cycle despite the global supply disruptions and escalating costs of raw materials.

Over the past five years of implementation (2017 to 2021), the PFI program has:

• Resuscitated and established 52 local blending plants across 19 states and all 6 geopolitical zones,
• Facilitated the local production and supply of quality fertilizer at an affordable price
• Deliver about 3 metric tons (about 60 million 50kg Bags) of NPK 20:10:10 fertilizer,
• Created over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs across the fertilizer value chain, and
• Accrued substantial annual subsidy and FX savings through import substitution.