28 November 2011, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt – Managing Director of Indorama-Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited, Mr. Manish Mundra, says the company has paid out over N33.9 billion in dividends to the Federal and Rivers State governments since it acquired the plant from the Nigerian government in 2006.
Speaking on “Investment Climate in the Petrochemicals Sector” at the just-concluded Rivers Investment Forum, Mundra disclosed that the company has been giving appropriate returns on investments to all the stakeholders since it was privatised in 2006.
He gave the breakdown of the N33.9 billion dividend paid as N8.71billion to Rivers State and N25.2 billion to the Bureau of Public Enterprises and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
Mundra disclosed that the company also paid about N15.61 billion in taxes to the federal and state governments. These include value added tax, customs duty, withholding taxes and Pay As You Earn.
On the decision by the company to involve all stakeholders, especially staff and the host communities, he said, “For the first time, host communities have been allotted 7.5 percent of the company shares, while employees were given 2.5 percent.
“The employees have already acquired the shares through a bank loan and are to enjoy a dividend of over N400 million,” he said.
Counting the gains of the privatisation of the company, he said apart from direct and indirect employment of 1,250 Nigerians, the company has saved the country more than $1.63 billion in foreign exchange through import substitution and exports.
He said more than 200 plastics companies in Nigeria now source their raw materials at Eleme Petrochemicals, instead of importing such raw materials. Nigeria has also become a net exporter of petrochemicals (polyethylene and polypropylene).
Mundra stated that Nigeria, and indeed Rivers State, would gain tremendously if there is more investment in the petrochemicals sector to feed the high global demand for petrochemical products.
