Agric revolution underway, as FG targets 8MT fertilizer by 2017
Group Executive Director, Gas and Power, at NNPC, Mr David Ige, who disclosed this, said the project is to be supported by a 350mw power plant, a petrochemical plant and a central processing facility, alongside big commercial and residential facilities. He said the facility was estimated to gulp between $15 billion and $20 billion in anticipated investment, with additional investments in infrastructure and utilities to be provided by a special purpose vehicle to be constituted by willing investors and the Federal Government. The NNPC official stated that when completed, the project would stimulate a geographically dispersed industrialisation of Nigeria, coupled with an unprecedented new jobs estimated at over five million across the entire value chain in the upstream, midstream and downstream sub-sectors of the economy.
To ensure the successful take-off and completion of the gigantic project, Ige called on the Revenue Mobilization, Accounts and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to join NNPC in sensitising critical stakeholders, especially the three tiers of government, so as to attract massive investment to the sector. The industrial park, patterned after the Xenel Petrochemical Plant in Saudi Arabia and the Nagarjuna Fertilizer Plant in India will, on completion, support the entire value chain of production, processing and marketing of agricultural products in the country and beyond. Observers believe the project will provide additional impetus to the agriculture sector, where the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is also offering over $500 million facilities through NIRSEL.
It would be recalled that the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) had, in January, this year, approved a loan of $100 million to Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals Limited (IEFCL) to build and operate a gas to urea fertilizer plant, located in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, which will serve other sub-regional markets in Benin Republic, Brazil, Ghana, India, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The project, according to AfDB, will allow Nigeria, which presently relies heavily (80 per cent) on imported fertilizer, to progressively become self-sufficient and a major exporter of fertilizer and associated products.
Ultimately, the project will act as a catalyst to support job creation in agriculture and agro-allied industries in Nigeria, in addition to achieving the Millennium Development Goals in food sufficiency and a cleaner environment. The fertilizer plant, located in present Eleme industrial complex, will produce urea to be sold in export and local markets. Other project components of the project, according to the NNPC director, include an 84-kilometre pipeline and a multipurpose jetty and terminal infrastructure at Onne Port, 16 km from the project site.
The complex is expected to be among the most competitive production sites given the low feedstock price and economies of scale, which will be propelled by government fiscal incentives. Indorama Eleme Fertilizer & Chemicals Limited (IEFCL) is the Borrower and Project Company. It is owned by Eleme and Indorama. Eleme is Africa’s second largest polyolefin producer and has a majority market share of polyethylene and polypropylene in Nigeria complimented by exports to nearby countries.
With this project, the AfDB also seeks to promote small and medium enterprise linkages through the distribution supply chain for the domestic market. The project will create 3,854 jobs of which 250 are direct and 348 indirect local positions during construction and operation. Moreover, the IEFCL project will generate revenues for host communities, River State Government and Eleme employees as well as the Federal Government of Nigeria from dividends, taxes and foreign exchange savings through import substitution.
The Sun
