Africa’s producing more fertilizer, but it’s still not getting to all farmers

For decades, fertilizer was too expensive for African farmers. It had to be imported, and transportation into the continent was expensive. 

Now, though, Africa is turning a corner toward producing fertilizer locally. A Moroccan company has signed a nearly $4 billion deal to build a fertilizer plant in Ethiopia. A Danish company is helping the Democratic Republic of Congo build a $2.5 billion fertilizer plant. The African Development Bank Group helped fund a new fertilizer plant in Nigeria that’s already boosting farmers’ yields.

And this August in Ghana, the vice president stood proudly before the largest fertilizer plant ever built in the country. Mahamudu Bawumia said the factory was the solution Ghana’s farmers had been demanding.

“This factory can meet all of Ghana’s demand for fertilizer,” he told a crowd that clapped enthusiastically.

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