By Abdulrahman Abdullahi
A fertiliser plant worth $1.4bn will be cited in Akwa Ibom State as the state governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel finalised agreements with OCP Africa, a subsidiary of the OCP Group.
The development is coming days after Governor Emmanuel alongside other delegations led by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva visited Morocco to advance steps on the $1.4 bn fertiliser production plant project initiated more than two years ago (June 2018).
The project is said to be one of the biggest funding for a fertiliser production plant in the world.
The governor signed one of the agreements of the partnership, which covers a memorandum of understanding between OCP Africa, the Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria, and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) on land acquisition, administrative facilitation, and common agriculturevelopment projects in the the state.
Speaking during the signing ceremony, which was held at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UMP6), Governor Emmanuel stressed that the state is prepared to commence work on the project.
He said: “Our state is receptive to investments and we are prepared to offer the necessary support to make the project a reality.
“With a site that is suitably located to enable operational logistics and an abundance of gas resources, all that is left is for the parties to accelerate the project development process”.
Leveraging on the gas from Nigeria and phosphate from Morroco, the two partners agreed to solidify relationships.
“This project will lead to a multipurpose industrial platform in Nigeria, which will use Nigerian gas and Moroccan phosphate to produce 750,000 tons of ammonia and 1 million tons of phosphate fertilisers annually by 2025,” a statement from the state government read in part.