The United Nations has said Dangote Industries Limited is playing an important role in addressing Africa’s food security challenges, especially through its fertiliser production.
UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, made the statement during a visit to the company’s industrial complex in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
She said the UN would continue to support and promote solutions that can be scaled across Africa.
“I think the UN’s job here is to amplify and to put visibility on the possibilities of mitigating a food security crisis, and this is one of them,” she said. “I hope that when we go back, we can continue to engage partners and countries that should collaborate with Dangote Industries.”
Mohammed said Africa’s food challenges are being worsened by economic pressures, climate issues, and global instability.
She added that partnerships like Dangote’s model could help ease the situation.
President of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, said the company has increased exports of fertiliser and fuel products to several African countries.
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He said this move is aimed at supporting agriculture and improving fuel supply across the continent.
“The challenges are many. One is of urea, which is fertiliser that we have. I think in the last couple of days we’ve been loading to mostly African countries, which we were not doing before,” he said.
Dangote said the refinery has also shipped around 17 cargoes of petrol to African markets.
“What I can do is assure Nigerians … and most of West Africa, Central Africa, and East Africa, we have the capacity to supply them,” he said.
He also said crude supply from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) had improved, but was still below required levels.
“Last month, they gave us six cargoes for naira and four cargoes for dollars,” he said.
Dangote added that the refinery is still facing challenges in securing crude from some international oil companies operating in Nigeria.