The African Development Bank, AfDB, on Wednesday said it would support fertilizer production in Nigeria with 100 million dollars.
Alhassane Haidara, Industrial Development Manager of the bank, disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the key industrial initiatives and projects of the bank in Abidjan.
He said: “We are going to finance a huge fertilizer plant for the production of Uriah, Ammonia, among others and we are partnering with many companies to get it done.
“The plant will be one of the largest fertilizer plants not only in Africa but in the world.”
He said that the production would be leveraging on the huge gas reserve in Nigeria to power the plant and transform the raw materials.
He added that the aim was to ensure that the agricultural sector in Nigeria as well as Africa was massively developed.
He noted that there were lots of interest in Nigeria to develop the agriculture and other sectors of the economy.
According to him, the bank will this year embark on projects in the petrol chemical sector, which also linked with the fertilizer production.
He said that bank had in 2014 supported the Dangote Group with 100 million dollars for the expansion of the group’s activities on cement and petrol chemical across Africa.
He said the group was able to access the bank loan based on its clean balance sheet.
“We supported the Dangote Group with 100 million dollars as well to boost its activities in cement production across Africa,” he said.
Mr Haidara said industrializing Africa was among the high five priorities of the bank, adding that the bank’s commitment had increased from 40 million dollars in 2000 to 2000 million dollars as at 2017.
He said that Africa’s industrialization still lagged behind compared to other continents in the world.
NAN
