NSIA to exit PFI in Nov, MOFI unveils transition plan 

Orisemeke Benjamin

The Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) has restated its commitment to the success of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) through sustained strategic support to the PFI-NPK Limited under the full operations and management of MOFI Management Company Limited (ManCo).

This is just as its joint management partner, Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), exits the co-management arrangement in November 2025. 

This was revealed by the CEO of MOFI, Dr. Amstrong Ume Takang, to stakeholders within the fertilizer value chain hosted to a roundtable Saturday in Abuja

The roundtable was convened for PFI-NPK stakeholders by MOFI and NSIA to assess the impact of the reforms undertaken along the journey, evaluate the evolving partnership with stakeholders, and envision the future of the PFI through the lens of a post-NSIA strategic transition plan,. 

Dr. Armstrong described the roundtable as defining, stating that it afforded the PFI-NPK investor, managers, and stakeholders a unique opportunity to chart a course forward for an initiative that had been truly a transformative and impactful model of success. 

“Based on assessment of the key stakeholders, it has had significant impact in terms of the farming inputs sector and it has helped bring some orderliness in the sourcing and the supply of fertiliser raw materials to blenders and so we think that that is a major contribution.

“The second is really around the sustainability that’s brought to blending plants, growing from 4 to over 90 blending plants nationwide and so we now have a situation whereby a lot of new businesses have been established and are being sustained through this program.

“It has also helped in ensuring that we have a higher degree of certainty in terms of the quality of fertiliser inputs into the ecosystem, thereby helping increase the yield per hectare in the farms and so overall we believe it has been reasonably successful in terms of supporting the agri-value chain.”

The Federal Government established the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI), a fertilizer intervention project, to stimulate local production of fertilizer by reviving the local blending fertilizer industry; and make fertilizer available to Nigerian farmers at affordable prices among others.

Following the restructuring of the PFI in 2021, PFI-NPK became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI).

The joint-management arrangement is now set to end in November 2025 with the scheduled exit of NSIA, leaving ManCo as the sole manager of PFI-NPK.

Speaking with journalists, the Managing Director Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), Aminu Umar-Sadiq, said the Authority has been able to open up the sector, making it more profitable.

The Managing Director while noting that the program pushed down the prices of fertilizer added that it would help to boost food production across the country.     

“NSIA’s role has always been a transitionary role. Right from the inception for the program, NSIA never expected to continuously operate the program.

“All we wanted to do was to show that the business model was workable, to show that we were able to resuscitate what was a hitherto moribund industry in the blending industry, to make blenders actually financially profitable, and to hand over the sector back to the participants of that sector, which is the blenders.

“So, all of this has actually been part of the plan for NSIA to come in, to resuscitate, and to transition back out.

“I think that is one of the stunning successes of the program. We have opened up the sector. We have made it profitable for private sector actors to actually want to come and participate in the sector.

“We have encouraged the governments to actually ban the importation of finished NPK. And I think there is still a lot more to do. We can expand the blends.

“We can further push down on the pricing of fertilizer. And all of these areas are areas that MOFI is going to try to ensure moving forward abides with the PFI. Moving from four blending plants to 94, that is hope for food production in Nigeria,” the NSIA MD explained.