The managing director, Rahamanniyya fertilizer, Sokoto, Satish Rathore
The Managing Director of Rahamaniyya Fertiliser Plant, Satish Rathore, with over 25 years of experience in the industry in this interview says Rahamanniyya fertilizer stand out among options available to discerning farmers across Nigeria due to its purity. Excerpts:
What kind of fertiliser does your company Produce?
In Rahamaniyya fertilizer, we produce NPK 20:10:10 fertiliser and NPK 15:15:15. These two varieties are the familiar and popular options for the farmers and we produce all kinds of NPK fertilisers. The farmers use NPK 20:10:10 and NPK 15:15:15 for various crops. The aim of Rahamaniyya fertilizer is to produce very good fertilisers for the farmers. That is our target. In preparation of NPK, we use urea, DAP, MOP and limestone. Limestone is a raw material, but in preparation of the limestone, we have our own products that we don’t buy from anybody. That means our limestone granules are a very good product because it’s 100 per cent limestone. We are giving 100 per cent to farmers. The Rahamanniyya fertilizer — NPK 20:10:10, NPK 15:15:15 are some of the best fertilizers in Nigeria.
We have already given the sample to the Nigerian government and they have already approved the two as the best in Nigeria. We are giving the farmers good products, that is the target of Rahamanniyya fertilizer that we can give the farmers pure fertilisers. Urea must be pure, DAP must be pure, MOP must be pure and limestone should be pure. Nowadays in the market, we have seen so many varieties of limestones available. Those varieties, we have checked in our laboratory, but our limestones stand out. I challenge our competitors to check the quality of the limestone we are using. They can come to our plant and see our limestone granules and check their properties and quality. We use pure ground limestone with no dust so, purity, we can say, is 100 per cent. If purity is there, that means it will yield more profit to farmers automatically. And my whole team is working to sustain that.
Alhaji Abdulraman Musa Bashar, Founder Ramaniyya Group of Companies
What is the capacity of your plant?
We have two lines of NPK. All the lines are designed for 60MT per hour. That means we can say one line has the capacity of 1,414. The two lines have the capacities of 2,818 MT per day. That also means we are capable of producing 2,818 MT per day of NPK. Apart from the two lines of blending plants, we also have a limestone plant. The problem of limestone is dust. Our limestone plant has zero dust. That is why our fertilizer is very pure. We have two limestone plants. One plant is already commissioned and the second is almost at completion. Within two months, the project would be completed. After this, we can run four plants at a time.
So you can say 1,028,570MT per annum is our blending capacity and limestone capacity is 40MT per hour and if you calculate in 30 hours or 24 hours, we can say 800MT per day production for the limestone granules. This is the first plant in Nigeria with this capacity. Rahamanniyya fertiliser is one of the biggest and highest capacity plants in Nigeria. It’s a huge production.
There Are Similar Fertilizer Plants Across Nigeria, What Would You Say Is The Advantage Rahamanniyya Fertilizer Has Over Them?
Actually in Nigeria, a lot of fertilizer plants are available. And for the urea, there’s a fertilizer plant in Lagos, another is in Port Harcourt, Rivers state and so many NPK plants are there. Some produce only urea. But we are mixing the fertilizer. What is the purpose of urea? Urea gives nitrogen to the crops. But, we are mixing fertilizer. That means we are giving nitrogen, ammonium phosphate (DAP), phosphate also (MOP), pottash, and limestone. This is the reason our fertilizer is unique.
With Rahamanniyya Fertilizer coming on board, do you think it can help Nigeria reduce its fertilizer import?
Yes, that is a big problem we are facing in Nigeria. That we are importing fertilizer from abroad, that is not good because everything is available in Nigeria. Phosphate is available. Sokoto is rich in limestone — a very huge quantity of limestone is available. Dangote and Indorama are producing urea, so we are not depending on other countries for the urea, we are depending on our own. As a Nigerian team, I’m saying we are producing our own urea and after some time we are going to produce our phosphate also. Phosphate is also available in Nigeria. The phosphate we are using as DAP. MOP, we can import from other countries, it’s okay. But the other three products are available in Nigeria. With Rahamanniyya fertilizer, Nigeria Will not be dependent on the other countries because our product quality is high. It is sufficient for the Nigerian market.
How does Rahamanniyya Fertilizer benefit the farmers?
Farmers who purchase Rahamaniyya fertilizers are guaranteed quality. I already told you that our limestone is dust free. If anyone is interested in testing our limestone from the Rahamanniyya fertilizer, they’re free to come.