Abuja – The Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga, has said that the Federal Government is to invest additional $2.1 billion about N325.5 billion in the Eleme Petrochemicals Company Ltd within the next three years.

Aganga made the announcement on Wednesday after inspecting the facilities and operations of the company at Eleme, near Port Harcourt.

He said that Indorama Group would also invest additional $2.1billion in three new plants in the company, adding that the country had the potential to be the hub of petrochemical industry in Africa “when the projects are completed”.

The minister said that when completed, they would complement the existing investment of about $575 million the Group had injected to revive the moribund plants which produced various petrochemical products.

Aganga said Federal Government would soon initiate policies and a regime of incentives that would drive the petrochemicals sector to ensure that Nigeria became the hub of the petrochemicals industry in Africa.

He said that Qatar became the richest country in the world, with per capita income of more than $88,000, due to the growth of its petrochemical industry.

The minister said he had focused on the development of the petrochemical industry because of the belief that Nigeria “can become one of the top three in Africa and easily one of the 10 in the world as the country has raw materials and the people.”

According to him, the available record from the company has shown that its revenure has grown significantly, paying dividends of more than N40 billion to the Federal and Rivers State Governments and its employees in the past five years.

Aganga said that Indorama Group had the second largest petrochemicals facility in Africa, second to South Africa, adding that it would not take long before the country achieved the target as the largest petrochemicals industry in Africa.

He said his ministry would base its industrial revolution strategy on areas where the country had comparative and competitive advantage, saying that “petrochemicals industry is one of the key areas of priority.”

He said the success of Eleme Petrochemicals was hinged on its market leadership, strong corporate value, ethics and excellent public-private partnership (PPP) which gave the community, employees, state and Federal Government equity share in the company.

Speaking on the occasion, the Managing Director of  the company, Mr Manish Mundra, said the Indorama Group was ready to partner with the Federal Government to make the country the global hub of petrochemical industry.

He said there were more than 20 compounds and sub-compounds that could be derived from the petrochemicals sector for various areas of the social and economic development of the country.

Mundra said: “Nigeria has the potential of natural resources to become the hub of petrochemical industry in the world, and we are ready to work with the Federal Government to make this happen.’’

The Indorama Corporation, with headquarters in Indonesia, was founded in 1976, and operates in Singapore, India, Thailand, Egypt, Sri-Lanka and Turkey.

The company is a global manufacturer of diversified industrial products such as polyester and intermediates (fibre, PET, Resin, PTA), spun yarns, polyolefin, cement, textiles and industrial gloves. (NAN)