Adewale Sanyaolu
The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), has committed to helping source financiers for the $120 million Eko Petrochemical Refinery project.
The USTDA equally commended the management of Eko Petrochemical and Refining Company Limited, led by its Chairman, Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho, for the level of work done so far.
Acting Director of USTDA, Mr. Thomas Hardy, gave the commitment during a project inspection of the 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) modular refinery located at Tomaro Island in Amuwo-Odofin Local Government in Lagos at the weekend.
“We will continue to help in sourcing for financiers through companies in American that will support the project for speedy completion of the refinery.
We are proud to support this project and this will lead to infrastructure development and economic growth in Nigeria.
`This project represents an excellent opportunity for U.S. businesses to export technologies and services in support of Nigeria’s refining goals,” he said
Hardy said USTDA in 2017, released a grant of one million dollars for the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) refinery Project in order to ensure that the vision of Iheanacho becomes a reality.
The USTDA boss said that the move by the US government was also to deepen closer bilateral co-operation between the United States and Nigeria.
He said the project during construction and upon completion would generate and help grow the Nigeria economy. Also speaking, the Country Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa, USTDA, Ms Shannon Roe, said one of the reasons why the agency came for the inspection visit was to see the level of work that has taken place since the last time they visited in 2017.
Roe said she hope that the proposed 20, 000 bpd production refinery would attract more investments to the country and develop the host communities.
‘‘The grant in 2017 was meant for detailed engineering design and development of the proposed refinery in Tomaro Industrial Park in Lagos.
‘.In his remarks, Iheanacho, lauded the USTDA’s support for the progress recorded so far towards the actualization of the refinery project.