The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele, made good his threat to add other items to the list of those banned from the official exchange market. In a circular issued yesterday (but which curiously will retroactively take effect on Friday the 7th of December 2018), the apex bank removed fertilizer from the official foreign exchange market.
The CBN, however, stated that transactions on Form M for which payments are still outstanding will be settled at the appropriate effective settlement date.
Prior to this
Emefiele had during the last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the year held last month hinted at a likely ban of more items.
“THE COMMITTEE URGED THE BANK TO EXTEND THE SUCCESS RECORDED IN THE ANCHOR BORROWERS PROGRAMME TOO OTHER ITEMS SUCH AS FISH, PALM OIL, ETC. BY INTRODUCING MORE STRINGENT MEASURES TO ACCESS TO FOREIGN EXCHANGE FOR PRODUCTS THAT CAN BE PRODUCED WITHIN NIGERIA.”
Here is a look at companies that may benefit from the new policy:
Notore Chemical Industries Plc
Notore was founded in 2005 by a group of investors led by Onajiite Okoloko. Other members of the consortium include Emerging Market Partners and Orascom of Egypt. The company’s operations are divided into three units: fertilizer, power, and seeds.
Notore bought over assets of the defunct National Fertilizer Company (NAFCON), Onne.
Indorama fertilizers
Indorama Eleme Fertilizer & Chemicals Limited (IEFCL) is a group company of Indorama Corporation. The company is the world’s largest single-train Urea fertilizer plant.
The company, a total fertilizer solution provider, is situated on 38 hectares of land in the expansive Indorama Complex, Eleme, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. The Plant has a production capacity of 4,000 metric tons (MT) of nitrogenous fertilizers per day or annual production capacity of 1.4 MT.
The fertilizer Plant includes 2,300 Metric Tons Per day (MTPD) ammonia plant, 4,000 MTPD Urea granulation plant and associated offsite and utilities.
Indorama bought the Eleme Petrochemical Company Limited (EPCL) which was privatised in 2006 for $300 million.
Dangote Petrochemical Refinery
The fertilizer component of the Dangote Petrochemical Refinery is billed to commence operations sometime in 2019.
(Nairametrics)
