LEADERSHIP Business Person Of The Year 2025: Thomas Etuh

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He turned fertilizer into a unit for nationalist renewal.

The Farmer’s Executive

Few Nigerian entrepreneurs embody the tone of self-reliance and nation-building similar Thomas Etuh, Chairman of Mikap Group and Fertilizers and Inputs Suppliers of Nigeria (FEPSAN).

From humble beginnings successful the Middle Belt to starring 1 of Africa’s astir transformative agribusiness revolutions, Etuh has shown that backstage enterprise—anchored connected imaginativeness and integrity—can provender some radical and prosperity.

Under his watch, fertilizer has ceased to beryllium a luxury point oregon a governmental tool; it has go a awesome of empowerment for millions of smallholder farmers crossed Nigeria.

“Agriculture is not conscionable business,” helium says. “It is the instauration of our nationalist security.”

Feeding a Nation, One Reform astatine a Time

When Etuh became a cardinal fig successful Nigeria’s fertilizer ecosystem, the assemblage was chaotic—dominated by middlemen, riddled with fraud, and distant from the existent farmer.

Through relentless advocacy and concern with the national government, Etuh helped plan and execute the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI), which revolutionised section blending, lowered costs, and created nonstop entree for farmers.

The result? From less than 10 functional blending plants successful 2016, Nigeria present boasts implicit 70 operating plants—each 1 a hub of employment, production, and agrarian revival.

Etuh’s Mikap Group and FEPSAN web unneurotic person helped present implicit 50 cardinal bags of NPK fertilizer nationwide, cutting dependence connected imports and redeeming the state billions successful overseas exchange.

Championing Local Production and Value Chains

Etuh’s imaginativeness extends beyond fertilizer. He believes successful gathering cultivation worth chains end-to-end—from input to yield, from husbandman to market.

Through Mikap Nigeria Limited, helium has invested successful fertilizer blending, harvest nutrition, logistics, and warehousing, ensuring that the benefits of agriculture scope each level of the economy.

His committedness has birthed partnerships with authorities governments, cooperatives, and micro-finance institutions, opening recognition windows for tiny farmers who erstwhile lacked entree to finance.

In each authorities wherever his projects operate, livelihoods rise, younker find purpose, and women summation economical voice.

The Numbers that Feed Hope

Over 50 cardinal fertilizer bags distributed nationwide

70+ blending plants revived oregon recently operational

Hundreds of thousands of farmers reached directly

Tens of thousands of jobs created on the fertilizer worth chain

Billions successful foreign-exchange savings achieved done section production

Each fig represents not lone output, but impact—measurable betterment successful the lives of Nigerians.

From FEPSAN to National Policy

As President of the Fertilizers and Inputs Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN), Etuh has been the dependable and conscience of the sector.

He led the propulsion for section sourcing of earthy materials, ensuring that Nigeria’s limestone, urea, and phosphate industries became cardinal contributors to fertilizer formulation.

He besides championed quality-control protocols that person drastically reduced substandard and adulterated products. Farmers present person fertilizer blends suited to circumstantial ungraded and harvest types—science replacing speculation.

Through accordant dialog with policymakers, Etuh helped signifier Nigeria’s National Fertilizer Quality Control Act, present regarded arsenic a exemplary regulatory model for sub-Saharan Africa.

Beyond Business: Empowering Communities

Etuh’s consciousness of intent extends to philanthropy and quality development. Through the Thomas Etuh Foundation, helium supports education, healthcare, and younker entrepreneurship crossed Kogi, Benue, and Nasarawa states.

He has endowed scholarships for indigent students, sponsored cultivation hold training, and funded small-scale processing facilities for women cooperatives.

In 2024, his Foundation launched the Green Rural Initiative, which provides start-up kits—fertilizer, seedlings, and training—to 5,000 caller farmers annually. The inaugural embodies his condemnation that the prosperity of cities depends connected the productivity of villages.

A Leader Rooted successful Values

Soft-spoken but strategic, Etuh is known for his meticulous planning, quiescent philanthropy, and unwavering content successful partnerships.

Colleagues picture him arsenic a antheral who negotiates with empathy but executes with precision—a operation that has earned him spot crossed government, finance, and agrarian communities alike.

Educated astatine the Ahmadu Bello...

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