Experts have revealed that Nigeria loses about 30 million tonnes of urea (fertiliser) to gas flaring yearly.

They regretted that the amount of gas flared could be captured and made available to manufacturers and also exported to other countries.

An expert on the product, Paul Makepeace stated this yesterday in Abuja during a stakeholders’ forum on fertiliser. He said the gas being flared is the raw material need to make urea, a major component in fertiliser.

According to him: “In Nigeria about 30 million tonnes of urea are flared every year. These can be captured and made available to manufacturers. They could also be used for power generation, methanol and some other things.”

He commended the plan by Dangote to produce 2.8 million tonnes of urea and Indorama next year.

The Vice President of African Fertiliser and Agribusiness Partnership, Prof. Richard Mkandawire, stressed the need to enable agricultural input suppliers have access to finance so as to make the price of fertiliser affordable for farmers.