Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture announced a partnership with Qatari energy group Al Jedad Holdings to build a primary chemical fertiliser production plant at the Petroleum Hub in Atuabo, in the country’s western region.
The US$5 billion project will be developed in partnership with agro-industrial group Granum Limited. Construction is set to begin in October 2025, with commissioning expected within 32 months, or about three years.
Primary production involves processing raw materials such as natural gas and phosphate rock into chemical fertilisers including urea, ammonium sulfate, muriate of potash, and triple superphosphate.
“This project is about to begin. For the first time, Ghana will be producing fertilisers locally, specifically urea and ammonia at the Petroleum Hub in Atuabo. This will create over 2,000 direct jobs, especially for the youth,” said Foster Mawuli Benson, founder of Granum Agro Limited. No details on production capacity have yet been disclosed.
If completed, the project will make Ghana one of the few West African producers of primary chemical fertilisers, alongside Nigeria and Senegal. For Accra, the project represents a strategic move to reduce dependence on imports.
Until now, Ghana’s industry has mainly been limited to fertiliser blending plants using imported compounds. “There is no primary chemical fertiliser production in Ghana. Fertilisers are imported either as compounds or in bulk, and bulk fertilisers are then blended into different formulations and distributed through a network of agro-dealers,” the International Fertiliser Development Center (IFDC) noted in a 2024 report on the country’s fertiliser industry.
According to IFDC, Ghana imported about 554,239 tons of fertiliser in 2024, ranking as the third-largest West African importer after Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire. The shipments mainly consisted of NPK, urea, and triple superphosphate.
