The Ministry of Food and Agriculture is partnering with OCP Group, a Moroccan fertiliser company, to set up a two-billion-dollar fertiliser manufacturing plant in Ghana.

The Agriculture Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, emphasised that, the company will complement government’s effort to achieve the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative as he patted himself on the back for the increase in usage of fertiliser under his regime.

Speaking at the inauguration of the board of the National Fertiliser Council, the Minister said “in the last four years, for the first time, there has been surplus of production of gas in our seas alongside petroleum. We’ve been working to attract foreign investors to come and exploit this gas to turn it into fertiliser. We’ve done that in collaboration with the OCP Group, Morroco’s fertiliser company.”

“We’re very optimistic that we should be able to attract the right amount of investments to start the construction of a fertiliser manufacturing plant in Ghana. This is a huge investment we’re talking about, $2 billion.”

Chairperson of the board, Nana Serwah Bonsu Amoako, assured of her outfit’s commitment of sticking with the mandate bestowed on them in increasing consumption of organic fertilisers.

“We will first work with the Ministry [Food and Agriculture] to implement its strategy to mitigate the current fertiliser crisis by promoting the use of organic fertilisers, including local poultry manure, which is cheaper and of equal quality. In the long term, we will continue to partner to begin the construction of our home-grown world scale fertiliser manufacturing plant, which is expected to alleviate the burden of succumbing to global fertiliser price shocks,” she said.

Meanwhile, a Member of the Board and Managing Director of Yara Ghana, Danquah Addo-Yobo, says price of fertiliser will continue to peak as their international partners have shut down, due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“We have shut down our plant in Italy because of the high cost of production. For us in Ghana, we have been working extremely hard with our group to ensure that we can secure some volumes into the country. I cannot guarantee that we’ll have everything we need, but at least we’ll have products for the key moment of the season.”

“The other bit is it wouldn’t be cheap. It’s about time we sound it very clearly to the system and to our dear farmers,” he said.