AfDB approves $100m loan to boost fertilizer production

Category: Business Published on Monday, 04 February 2013 06:00

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a loan of $100 million for Indorama Eleme Fertilizer & Chemicals Limited (IEFCL) to build and operate a gas-to-urea fertilizer plant located in Port Harcourt.

The company will serve markets in Nigeria, Benin, Brazil, Ghana, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, a statement from the bank said.

The project will allow Nigeria, which relies heavily (80 per cent) on imported fertilizer, to progressively become self-sufficient and a major exporter.

Ultimately, the project will act as a catalyst to support job creation in the area, in addition to striving towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals in the areas of food sufficiency and a cleaner environment.

The IEFCL plant, located in the existing Eleme industrial complex, will produce urea for export and for the domestic markets.

Other project components will 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.

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 complemented by exports to nearby countries.

With this project, the AfDB also promotes 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.