Aliko Dangote, chairman of the Dangote Group, says the federal government should stop the export of maize from Nigeria to avoid the scarcity expected to come as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Dangote said Russia and Ukraine are the major producers of ingredients used in making fertilizers.
He said the shortage of these ingredients as a result of the war will also lead to a shortage of fertilizers and some food products like wheat and maize.
“There will be shortage of wheat, maize and a lot of products because as we speak now Russia and Ukraine do almost 30% of the world’s urea and 26% of the world’s potash — and phosphate also, there are one of the largest in the world,” he said.
“There would be scarcity of food generally, we would not be able to access fertilizers going forward, we would not see the effects now, but in the next two, three months. The US will not be able to do same number of tonnage they did last year because of this.
Dangote said he believes food producers need to have a sit down with the government to halt the coming scarcity.
“Right now, you would start seeing people exporting maize to earn foreign exchange, which I think we need to stop, so that we don’t create shortage, and we need to make sure we grow more so we don’t have shortage. It is about food security, and it is very very serious.”
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