The atmosphere in Bonny Island of Rivers State seems charged since the unveiling of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was signed in Port Harcourt last week.
The deal is to see the establishment of a petrochemicals plant in Bonny which is expected to lead in methanol and fertilizer products, both for home consumption and export.
Business leaders on the Island led by Constance Nwokejiobi, leader of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) and President of the Bonny Chamber of Commerce, said the new road to Bonny has proved that businesses can operate on the island efficiently.
She also said Bonny has access to the ocean and has a huge reservoir of human capital and skilled labour trained over the years especially by NLNG’s Train-7. She said these are attracting world class investments.
Bonny, which already had the NLNG and many IOCs is now bussing after their son and landowner, Sene Kalada, signed as an equity holder with his land, which hitherto is a 500 ha commercial farm.
Some of the business owners who chose to remain unmentioned at this point said they are readying themselves to participate in the spinoffs expected from the plant. Rivers State already has the Indorama-Eleme Petrochemicals Plant and later a Fertilizer plant.
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Investors told BusinessDay a $3.5 billion petrochemical plant is expected to trigger a massive industrial ecosystem, creating diverse spin-off business opportunities that including technical downstream manufacturing utilizing the plant’s raw outputs.
There are downstream manufacturing (off-taker) businesses that may utilize the polymer resins, plastic pellets, and chemical byproducts produced directly by the primary facility. There are also plastic packaging production prospects manufacturing PET jars, jerrycans, and industrial films.
Others talked about constant regional demand from fast moving consumer goods as well as blending and packaging localized NPK fertilizers; manufacturing specialized pesticides utilizing chemical intermediates; formulating cleaning agents using chemical bases; and bulk supply to nearby manufacturing hubs.
There are also hopes of business-to-business industrial services & maintenance with heavy industrial plants relying heavily on external vendors to keep operations running smoothly without downtime. There are hopes for fabrication and welding to provide customized piping structural adjustments.
Other prospects creating excitements include on-site mechanical repair contracts, safety equipment supply (PPE), industrial waste management, supply chain, haulage, & logistics; product haulage and trucking; warehousing (by operating specialized chemical tankers and flatbed trucks); warehousing and silo storage; equipment leasing; the human ecosystem (consumer services); corporate real estate & housing; as well as industrial catering & laundromat services such as centralized daily meal deliveries for shift workers and specialized uniform cleaning contracts.
This is expected to boost the economy of Rivers State which is estimated at a $20bn. It is aspiring to chase Lagos of about $259bn.
BusinessDay gathered that the newly commissioned road to Bonny helped the island to win the location from the investors while the peace and political stability that just returned to the state was seen as the biggest factor that helped in the final investment decision (FID) in favour of Rivers.
The MoU was signed between Best Option Chemical Limited represented by Frank Okafor with CNCEC of China represented by Lee Edwards on one hand and Kalada on the hand. The deal was midwifed and the signing was witnessed by the Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency (RSIPA) led by Chamberlain Peterside, the Director-General.
The $3.5bn deal is equivalent to approximately ₦4.66 trillion) using the official market rate of ₦1,331.09 per USD for October 16, 2026, but unofficial rate would be ₦1,390 per USD, or ₦4.87 trillion.
Industry experts also look at 35,000 job opportunities. Experts say in the immediate context of Nigeria’s current industrial landscape, this specific investment tier matches the total capital footprint of the world-scale Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals & Fertilizer complex in Port Harcourt.
“The likely size, economic value, and operational metrics generated by a $3.5 billion investment break down across four major value vectors: Macro-economic value & export footprint; Annual export revenue comparable to models like the Brass and Bonny petrochemical projects and could generate at least $1.5 billion annually in export earnings from polymers, fertilizers, and methanol.
This could save Nigeria roughly $200 million annually in import substitution.
On jobs, the construction phase could fetch between 15,000 and 30,000 temporary jobs over a 3- to 5-year build window covering engineering, procurement, civics, and site development; but during operational stage, it could up to 5,000 permanent, highly skilled jobs in plant operations, technical maintenance, and chemical engineering, alongside tens of thousands of indirect logistical jobs.
In feedstock consumption, the plant is expected to typically lock in long-term Gas Sale and Purchase Agreements (GSPA) to consume around 270 million standard cubic feet (mmscf) of gas per day. It typically fields a capacity of 1.4 million to 2.8 million metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) of end products like urea fertilizer, polypropylene, or methanol.
The Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency (RSIPA) is said to have midwifed the process. Chamberlain Peterside, the Direcror-General, said on receipt of that proposal from Best Option Chemicals Limited, they reached out and began discussions that led to the MoU.
