Rivers State: Real reason behind Osinbajo’s visit

The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s scheduled visit to Rivers State has had several twist to the exact reason behind the trip.

One of such twist is the pronouncement by the Rivers State Government stating that the recently constructed motor park and a market at Obio/ Akpo local government area of the state would be commissioned by Osinbajo during his visit.

Africa Update gathered that contrary to the statement by the state government, the crux of the visit on Thursday, July 27, 2017 is to inaugurate the world-class fertilizer plant built by Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals Limited, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

According to sources, the plant which has capacity for 1.5 million Metric Tons of Urea fertilizer is the world’s largest single-train Urea plant, and one of the ambitious green field projects of Indorama in Nigeria.

The Plant which was originally fully-owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria and commissioned in 1996 , has a production capacity of 4000 metric tons (MT) of nitrogenous fertilizers per day or 1.5 MT per annum. The world-scale plant has been built with an investment of USD 1.5 billion, a huge Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), funded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and a Consortium of 15 European and African banks and Financial Institutions.

 

The construction of the plant commenced in April 2013 and completed in December 2015. The commissioning activities were concluded in March 2016 and the commercial production started in June 2016.

Under the current equity shareholding in Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited, Indorama Group has 65 percent; and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has 10 percent.

The other equity shareholding indicates that the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE), 5 percent; Rivers State Government, 10 percent; Host Communities, 7.5 percent; and Nigerian workers, 2.5 percent.