NSIA, Moroccan Investors sign $1.4bn deal
The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has signed an agreement with OCP of Morocco, for the development of a $1.4 billion plant to produce Ammonia and Diammonium Phosphate, under its Gas Industrialization Strategy.
According to the NSIA, “The Multipurpose Industrial Platform Project is a backward integration initiative which builds on the successes of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) and other sovereign bilateral initiatives between Nigeria and Morocco.
“The project is structured to commercialize Nigeria’s vast natural gas resources and satisfy Morocco’s demand for cost-competitive Ammonia.”
The parties to the agreement included the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board (NCDMB), GACN (Gas Aggregation Company Nigeria Limited), Akwa Ibom State Government, the Fertilizer Producers & Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN) and Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN).
Part of the deal which was signed yesterday in Benguerir, Morocco, was a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between NSIA, OCP Africa and the Fertilizer Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN) to commit to the second phase of the Nigerian Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI II).
It also included a Shareholders’ Agreement (SHA) between the NSIA and OCP Africa for the creation of the Joint Venture Company (JVC) which would oversee the development of an industrial platform that would produce ammonia and fertilizers in Nigeria; an MOU between NSIA, OCP Africa and the Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria on land acquisition, administrative facilitation, and common agricultural development projects in the Akwa Ibom State.
In his comment, Mr Uche Orji, MD of NSIA said “this project forms a key part of NSIA’s gas industrialisation strategy and will deep intra-continental trade which is essential to Africa’s development and economic renaissance.
“This landmark project, the MIP, will explore increased levels of synergy between NSIA and OCP and the partners to the transactions and ultimately ensure that Nigeria builds an industrial base that is sustainable and complementary to mutual objectives of developing the agriculture sector in Nigeria.”
Suzan O/NAN
