FG realizes N67bn from fertilizer sales

By Favour Nnabugwu
The Federal government has realized N67billion from sales of fertilizers across the country in spite of its 25 percent subsidy on fertilizer.

The N67billion, as disclosed by Professor Sheikh Abdullah, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development at the three_day closing ceremony of the 38th Regular Meeting of the National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development in Abuja yesterday, said represented 75 percent proceeds from fertilizer nationwide.

According to him, “Total subsidy commitment by the federal government is N22.3275billion while recoverable sales proceeds amounting to N66.9825 billion will be deducted at source from States/FCT statutory allocations based on certificate receipt confirmed by respective States/FCT”

“The Ministry recognizes fertilizer as a critical input in the agricultural value chain and therefore, in the year 2010, the Ministry ordered a total of 900,000 metric tones of assorted fertilizers valued at N89.3billion which were distributed to the states, the FCT and federal depots at 25% subsidy”

To date, Prof Abdullah said, a total of 418,530 metric tons of fertilizer had been delivered, an amount that represented 46.5 percent achievement by the government.

Though, he admitted that the 46.5 percent performance was poor but explained that it was due to the delay in accepting fertilizers allocated to states, adding that in some cases, fertilizer allocation did face outright rejection.

The Ministry, he said, would from this year roll out fertilizer voucher scheme especially in the states that have already adopted the scheme and had carried our preliminary phases of the programme while states that were yet to carry out the preliminary phases would be considered in 2012.

He said, “The use of fertilizer voucher scheme as a policy instrument is to facilitate the transition from government controlled fertilizer subsidy delivery to a market based and private sector driven subsidy delivery system in Nigeria”