The Angolan government will invest 2.2 billion dollars (about 2 billion euros) in a fertilizer industrial complex resulting from a consortium with Opaia and Sonagas, a subsidiary of Sonangol, which will be completed in 2026.
The Soyo fertilizer industrial complex, whose foundation stone will be laid on June 28, will be the first unit of this type built in Angola and in Southern and Central Africadesigned for the production of granulated urea, according to the promoters’ press release.
Until now, only Nigeria, Gabon and Egypt have fertilizer plants in Africa.
Speaking to Lusa, the project coordinator and director of Opaia Indústria, Adriano Lamas, said that the disbursement of the loan, financed by a consortium of banks led by Afreximbank, will take place during the almost four years of construction of the complex, whose completion It is scheduled for the third quarter of 2026.
The factory may produce 3,500 tons of urea per dayallowing to satisfy the needs of the national market.
Part of the production will go to preferential foreign markets, mainly in the African region, but it may also reach other parts of the globe such as Latin America, the official revealed.
According to Adriano Lamas, the factory will generate 3,200 direct and indirect jobs in the construction phase and 1,500 in the production phase.
Urea is a chemical compound in the form of white crystals that has a higher nitrogen content (46%) soluble in water.
In addition, nitrates do not accumulate in the crop, it allows rapid growth of the vegetative mass, increases crop yields and protein content in cereal grains, being an environmentally friendly fertilizer that does not acidify the soil, the note says.
The project aims meet the objective of covering the deficit of 1,200 thousand tons of fertilizers in the southern African region alone which includes 15 countries: South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Afreximbank, a pan-African multilateral financial institution, is also relying on technical advice from Saipem, which participated in a similar initiative in Nigeria, for this project.
Source: Observadora
