Luanda, July 30, 2024 (Lusa) - The Afreximbank is to provide finance of $1.4 billion (€1.2 billion) to a fertiliser factory project in Angola with production expected to start in 2027.
The financing agreement for the project was signed on Monday in Luanda between Afreximbank and Amufert, a company from the Opaia business group, which owns the future project located in Soyo, in Zaire province, and which aims to promote Angola's self-sufficiency in fertilisers.
In his speech, the president of Afreximbank, Benedict Oramah, highlighted the macroeconomic and social impact of this project to produce ammonia and fertilisers for the country, which currently imports almost all of these inputs used in agriculture.
Oramah emphasised that support for this type of project guarantees food security, but is also a question of "food sovereignty, promoting own production and reducing dependence "on other [countries], which quickly ban food exports.
"Today, Angola imports more than 1.4 billion dollars [€1.2 billion] worth of fertiliser a year," he said, adding that projects like these should be supported throughout the African continent, where there is raw material.
According to the Afreximbank president, this financial institution has a financing line of $2.2 billion (€2 billion) to help Angola, stressing that they are the biggest financiers of the Cabinda refinery project, and are also in talks with Sonangol, the Angolan state oil company, to develop the Lobito refinery.
Regarding the financing of the fertiliser plant consortium, Amufert and Sonangol, the minister of mineral resources, oil and gas, Diamantino Azevedo, stressed the importance of the state oil company creating the conditions to supply gas to this project.
This project has all the conditions created "that exist in few parts of the world for its start-up," said the minister, emphasising that Sonangol (via Sonagás), with a 10% stake in the project, has made the necessary gas available for this project.
"To enthuse, to give confidence to this project, we motivated Sonangol and the Opaia group to join forces in Amufert," he said. "The contract for the supply of gas at its own price for this project was approved. The government gave a small guarantee so that this project could also have these conditions."
The government official pointed out that the concession for phosphate exploration in Zaire province had also been handed over on Monday. He also highlighted the signing of a memorandum between the Opaia group and the private company K-Mineração, with a potash concession in Cabinda province, for the production of compound fertilisers.
Speaking to the media, the chairman of Amufert's board of directors, Agostinho Kapaia, said that construction of the plant was underway and that production was expected to start at the beginning of 2027.
Kapaia thanked Afreximbank for its support, because "not all Western banks risk putting money into emerging countries, and recognised the difficulties in finding financing.
"In fact, we had a lot of trouble finding finance, because banks in other countries defend their businessmen, their interests, and [there were] banks that basically forced us to give the most capital to companies in their countries," he said. "There are banks in Europe that could only finance the project if the shareholder was a European, if the companies that are going to implement the project defended the interests of their countries."
The businessman pointed out that the same happened in Asia.
According to Kapaia, the project is budgeted at around $2 billion (€1.8 billion), stressing that the factory has an annual production capacity of 1.3 million tonnes, so "Angola will no longer need to import fertilisers."
The businessman pointed out that the Angolan government had provided a guarantee of 20% of the total funding, in order to safeguard the production quantities needed to supply the domestic market, around 300,000 tonnes.
NME/ARO // ARO
Lusa
