OpeOluwani Akintayo
06 January 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC has failed to reveal the identities of core investors in the Benue bio-fuel project as promised.
In a statement published on Monday, November 27, and signed by the firm’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, quoted the Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru as saying names of the investors would be revealed in December.
However, up till the time of filing this report, the Corporation is yet to publish the list of the investors.
According to the statement published in November, Baru said the state oil firm had concluded the choice of a core investor for the proposed bio-fuel plant in Agasha Guma area of Benue State.
“Arrangements have been finalised to name the prospective investor in the weeks ahead after a painstaking due diligence exercise”, the statement read.
According to Baru, the core investor would provide 70 percent of the required funding for the project, while the Benue State government and the NNPC would take up the balance equity contribution.
The NNPC said upon completion, the plant was projected to generate about one million direct and indirect jobs, noting that the project would help link the energy sector with the agricultural sector through the commercial production of biofuels from selected energy crops.
Other components of the project include a sugarcane feedstock plantation of about 20,000 hectares; a cane mill and raw/refined sugar plant capable of producing 126,000 tonnes annually as well as a fuel-ethanol processing plant with production capacity of 84 million litres annually.
The bio-fuels projects will also help to establish the bio-gas cogeneration power plant which will generate 64 MW of power; a carbon dioxide recovery and a bottling plant that will produce 2,000 tonnes annually as well as an animal feed plant that will produce 63,000 tons annually.
