The Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI) has created One hundred and twenty thousand (120,000) jobs under the Buhari-led administration within 10 months.
Mr Thomas Etuh, a member of the PFI said this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday.
Etuh who is also the President of the Fertilisers Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN) said that about 8.5 million bags of fertiliser have been produced in Nigeria, under the current government’s agriculture revolution.
According to him, government targets to produce and deliver about 13 million bags of fertiliser to Nigerian farmers by the end of this year.
“The good news about the PFI is that it has created direct jobs in the country (people working in the factories) and when you combine it with those working for PFI at port, we are talking of about 50,000 direct jobs.
“For the indirect jobs that have been created, it’s about 70,000. If you look at the trucking, each barge moves 6,500 trailers translating to about 8,000 drivers and 13,000 motor assistant (conductors) that the PFI has created.
“When you go to virtually every plant, you will see that it has become a market with people selling all kinds of things.
“When you look at the value chain, the thread used in sewing the bags and even the bags themselves are produced by different companies; such companies were dead before now but they have been revived.
“When you count the number of bags used in bagging fertiliser, they are in millions; even the spare parts we use and other consumables, these are all value chains reaping the benefit of PFI,” Etuh said.
He explained that the country produced 7.5 million tons of maize under the current agriculture initiative and has been able to save about N60 billion in subsidies between January and September this year.
The FEPSAN chairman noted that 15 out of the existing 32 moribund fertiliser blending plants were now working perfectly to ensure government met its food sufficiency target in agriculture before 2019.
“Our aim is to get 18 blending plants working by March 2018,” Etuh added.
He said it was wrong for people to say that the Buhari administration had not created jobs whereas half of the moribund fertiliser blending plants in the country have been revived with workers being employed.
Etuh said: “Even the printings of the bags are jobs that have been created. When you count the benefit in terms of value chain, you will see that it’s inexhaustible.
