The establishment of Candel Agrochemical Manufacturing Plant will save the country about N86.4 billion annually which was usually spent on the importation of agrochemical products from abroad. This was disclosed by the chairman of the company in Lagos during the commissioning ceremony of the plant at Lekki Free Zone in the state.
“Candel’s factory is configured to produce products specially targeted at small scale farmers as well as customized formulations with different surfactant levels for large scale farmers. “The facility has five processing plants for soluble liquids (SL), Emulsifiable Concretes (SC) of products from diverse chemicals families.The Chairman of the company, Mr. Charles Anudu, said: “There is currently no local production of crop protection agrochemicals in Nigeria with over $400 million in foreign exchange expended annually to import them. “Crop protection chemicals protects crops from weeds, pests and diseases when in field , during transportation and in store. This helps for increased crop yields and better preservation by Nigerian farmers.
“It has sufficient capacity to supply Candel’s own distribution network in Nigeria and Ghana with enough spare capacity for third parties in Nigeria and overseas. The target of the international market influenced its location at the Lekki Free Zone,” he said. He stated that the drop in the global oil price is a blessing in disguise because the government will lay more emphasis on diversification and agriculture remains the major sector that creates employment.
Anudu affirmed that it is unsafe for a country to depend on importation and not to produce anything locally that is why Candel has commenced with its agrochemical plant which will also assist the government in development. He said that the multi billion Naira company is at its first phase of the project and will deliver a facility with a capacity for 80 million litres of formulated products per annum.
He added: “Construction of the production facility began in early 2014 after an extensive Environmental impact Assessment (EIA) exercise under the full supervision and guidance of the federal and Lagos State ministries of Environment. The Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, said that the major catalyst for development of the country lies in ‘Made in Nigeria’ products.
The Governor noted that the plant will open the door to more industries in the Free Trade Zone and would help farmers get cheaper agrochemical products and better quality assurance compared to the products coming from abroad. Fashola said that irrespective of languages differences among the people, business and development speak one language, which is that of prosperity for us all.
“China has shown that example and that is why they are the largest economy in the world today. We can replicate that achievement here and that is why they are our formidable partner. The road to prosperity in the Nigeria is in three words: ‘Made in Nigeria’.m
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