On Tuesday, the West Africa Trade & Investment Hub (Trade Hub) announced that it had awarded a $1.4 million(N574 million) co-investment grant to OCP Africa Fertilizers Nigeria Limited. The hub, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said the grant would help boost specialized fertilizer production in Nigeria to help farmers grow crops on a commercial scale and support food security in the country.

Michael Clements, Trade Hub's Chief of Party, stated: "Trade Hub has awarded a $1.4 million co-investment grant to OCP Africa Fertilizers Nigeria Limited to install modern blending equipment within its fertilizer blending plant facility, under construction in Kaduna State".

The top-in-class blending equipment will help bridge the gap where there is a lack of specialized fertilizers to grow crops on a large scale and support food security in the country.

According to the statement, the planned facility and equipment will produce various fertilizer blends customized to the needs of rice, maize, soybean, cassava, tomato, and other staple crops grown in Nigeria.

The statement highlights that the specialty blends of fertilizers can increase farmers' yields by 50 to 85 percent per hectare, depending on the crop. Mr. Clements said: "This project is quite a unique one, and we are excited to partner with OCP Africa to complement the Nigerian government's policy to leverage locally available resources to expand food production capabilities." "Such policies contribute significantly toward achieving the food security goals in Nigeria, in line with the USAID Feed the Future initiative," he noted.

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