The African Development Bank (AfDB) has extended a US$100mn loan to Indorama Eleme Fertiliser & Chemicals (IEFCL) to build and operate a gas-to-urea fertiliser plant in Nigeria.

The fertiliser produced at the plant will be sold in Benin, Brazil, Ghana, India, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK and the US. It will make Nigeria, which currently sources 80% of its fertiliser needs on the import market, self-sufficient and a major exporter.

Located in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, the project also includes the construction of an 84km pipeline and a multipurpose jetty and terminal infrastructure at Onne Port, 16 km from the plant site.

It is hoped the plant will also support job creation in the area and help in achieving the millennium development goals in the areas of food sufficiency and a cleaner environment.

“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,” says the AfDB.