The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) has announced financial close of its 11-year $35m loan to Indorama Eleme Fertilizer & Chemicals (IEFCL). 

The transaction is part of the financing of a $1.1bn expansion of the company’s existing fertiliser plant at Port Harcourt, Nigeria. 

The new plant is to be built alongside the existing facility and will double the company’s output annually to 2.8 million metric tonnes.
 
Patrick Crawford, EAIF Chair, said: “A successful and productive agriculture sector is essential to Nigeria’s future. The new plant for Indorama Eleme can benefit farming communities across Nigeria, which will help combat poverty, stimulate employment and improve the resilience of the Nigerian economy.”

“Projects like IEFCL’s Port Harcourt expansion are of fundamental strategic importance and of exactly the type PIDG and its companies are there to support,” he said.

The project directly supports the Nigerian government’s initiative to eliminate the importation of urea and to meet rising local demand for urea fertiliser: 3,830 people are to be hired to build the new plant; 608 people will have permanent jobs when it comes on stream.  

Construction is expected to take up to 37 months.

Nazmeera Moola, who heads the EAIF team at Investec Asset Management, said: “The Port Harcourt project is a prime example of EAIF’s finance making big infrastructure projects possible and developing private banks’ confidence to invest in emerging markets.”
 
“International private sector banks have been attracted to support the project because of the track record of IEFCL and the structure of the finance, which sees debt providers like EAIF supply 11-year loans, while private banks have preferred 8-year loans. It’s a prime example of blending public and private capital to the strategic benefit of the Nigerian economy and delivering tangible benefits to millions of people”.

EAIF previously provided loans of $48.8m towards construction of IEFCL’s first Port Harcourt fertiliser plant, which is now operating at full capacity. 

The new plant will share the existing infrastructure that supplies energy, water and port facilities. 

The infrastructure at the adjacent port of Onne is to be expanded to meet the needs of the enlarged fertiliser plant. 

An additional 11km of new gas pipeline that serves the IEFCL facility has already been added to the 84km installed when the present plant was constructed.
 
Manish Mundra, Indorama Africa’s CEO, said: “Nigeria has enormous potential to achieve agricultural self-sufficiency and food security. This is evident from the multi-fold increase in domestic fertiliser consumption after the start of Indorama’s first plant. Nigeria has also become a major hub for urea exports.” 

“With Line 2, we aim to further expand our ability to provide competitively priced and high-quality fertiliser to farmers in West Africa and across the globe.  Indorama is looking forward to continuing to contribute to Nigeria’s economic development. I am delighted that EAIF is again assisting us grow our business and that IEFCL and EAIF are helping power Nigeria’s economic development.”