The construction of the 3.6 billion dollar fertilizer plan is coming to fruition.
The latest development surfaces five years after the Moroccan state-owned conglomerate, OCP Group, formed a joint venture (JV) to establish a 3.6 billion dollars worth fertilizer plant in Dire Dawa, 456km away from the capital.
Last week, a final agreement was signed between Ahmed Shide, Minister of Finance, and representative of OCP Group to execute the project based on feasibility studies undertaken for the last three years since the conception of the fertilizer plant.
The first phase of project will require an investment of almost 2.4 billion dollars and it would see the setting up a fertilizer production unit with a capacity to produce 2.5 million tons.
About 1.2 billion dollars is needed to undertake the second phase of the project, which would increase the production capacity of the plan to 3.8 million tons a year.
Once constructed, the fertilizer plant is expected to use a gas produced in Ethiopia and Moroccan phosphoric acid. The government hopes it would help the country save more than one billion dollars forex spent to import fertilizer annually.
OCP and the state-run Ethiopian firm Chemical Industries Corporation have agreed to contribute 40% equity, while 60% of the investment is expected to come from different international financing sources.