Ahalson, Aqua Criderio, 3 others record significant progress on back of ERGP

Five Nigerian businesses made substantial progress and investments in recent times on the back of the Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), the Ministry of Budget and National Planning said in a recent publication.

The companies, which include three agro-based businesses, an indigenous oil company, and Nigeria’s first gold refinery, were featured in the fifth edition of the ERGP Focus Labs Newsletter, a publication that highlights progress on investments said to be unlocked and projects facilitated at the Focus Labs.

Ahalson Ltd, one of three agro-allied companies highlighted by the report, has been able to commercialize improved maize seed varieties. Following the ERGP Lab process, it was noted that Ahalson has achieved considerable progress in the implementation of its 3-feet plan and has achieved significant percentage of its target. The company has been able to supply Alfa safe seeds and inputs to its 2,600 farmers, currently cultivating 3,500 hectares with five tonnes-per-hectare output. With N90,000/tonne, Ahalson expects to turn over N1.6bn. It currently works closely with off-takers such as Grand Cereals, Dawanau Market Association and NNFM to open up markets for these farmers. Ahalson has also gone ahead to acquire grains cleaning plant of 43,200MT/annum in order to clean maize, sorghum and sesame seeds for local and international markets, the report said.

Aqua Criderio, another agro-allied company, opened integrated fish farms in Lagos and Akwa Ibom States, according to the publication. Through the support of the ERGP Implementation Unit, the report said, Aqua Criderio has gained CBN’s approval of N10bn loan for the projects. Meanwhile, the Isreali partners have accepted to bring in the balance of funds needed to drive the project which total outlay is put at $150m. Aqua Criderio is currently working out guarantee issues and the final arrangement for the foreign partners to arrive Nigeria to kickstart the project.
The third agro-allied business, Harvest Feed and Agro Processing Limited in Abeokuta, Ogun State, the report said, has increased its production levels by over 70 percent. The company currently produces cassava starch with a potential to venture into other cassava value chain products in the near future. It is planning for cassava pellets, flour, glucose, and chips.

The report also stated that at the Focus Lab session, the company had raised some issues, including the implementation of Import Adjusted Tax (IAT) of 60 percent on imported cassava products to ensure a competitive advantage over imported starch, and sourcing for additional funds from CBN/BOI to increase its production capacity utilisation.

After the Lab, a policy draft was prepared for the implementation of 40 percent IAT on imported cassava products and presented to the Tariff Technical Committee (TTC). The report said the Committee has made significant progress towards the new IAT in collaboration with the Nigerian Customs Service and it is hopeful that the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment will achieve policy change early in 2019.

Also featured was Techno Oil, which is identified for boosting backward integration with gas cylinder production, another project that is said to have derived impetus from participation in the ERGP Focus Lab. The plant has an installed production capacity of 5 million high quality LPG cylinders of various sizes annually. It is currently into the production of 6kg and 12.5kg LPG cylinders while plans are afoot to commence industrial gas cylinder production soon.

Also included as part of the ‘ERGP gains’ is Nigeria’s first gold refinery project owned by the Kian Smith conglomerate, but no details were provided on how the project benefitted from the ERGP lab.