The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has provided an $81.9 million senior term loan to support the expansion of Veenocks Ltd’s porcelain tile manufacturing plant in Sagamu, Ogun.
The project, estimated at $145 million, aims to increase the plant’s annual production capacity from 3.3 million to 9.9 million square metres.
The bank announced this in a statement by Vincent Musumba, Communication and Events Manager, Afreximbank, on Monday.
According to the statement, support for the project included a $2 million Project Preparation Facility (PPF) agreement signed with Veenocks in August 2024.
The PPF financed technical, commercial, financial, legal, environmental, and social studies required to establish the project’s bankability.
“The studies financed through the PPF, complemented by Afreximbank’s pan-African experience, enabled Veenocks to broaden its growth ambitions beyond its primary focus on the Nigerian market.
“This support informed the company’s plans to pursue regional opportunities over the medium term, with target markets including Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Cameroon, Ghana, Mauritania and Senegal.”
The statement said the $81.9 million senior term loan would support the plant’s expansion, including investment in additional manufacturing capacity. It added that the existing plant employs over 200 people directly, and the expansion is expected to create 300 additional direct jobs.bs.
The project is also expected to generate indirect employment opportunities in raw material supply, logistics, and distribution.
The statement noted that the preparation financing has been fully repaid from senior debt, completing the PPF funding cycle for Veenocks and replenishing capital for other projects.
The statement quoted Mrs Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice-President, Intra-African Trade and Export Development, Afreximbank, as saying:
“Veenocks demonstrates how project preparation, commercial expertise and senior debt financing can support African industrial investment.”
Awani said the studies financed through the PPF strengthened the project’s bankability and broadened the company’s regional growth ambitions.
“Our senior debt financing supports the plant expansion needed to convert those ambitions into increased productive capacity, and stronger foundations for intra-African trade.”
She added that fully repaying the preparation financing will free up funds to support more indigenous African investors and projects.
“This is the PPF’s revolving model in practice: the funds that have been repaid are used to support initiatives that add value to local resources and expand manufacturing.’
Also, Mr Adebisi Adebutu, Group President of R28 Holdings, the parent company of Veenocks Limited, was also quoted as saying: “Investment represents an important step towards our ambition of building a globally competitive manufacturing business in Nigeria, producing world-class tiles to European quality standards and reducing Nigeria’s dependence on imported tiles.”
He saidHe said the PPF was instrumental in broadening the company’s growth plans and positioning it to enter regional markets over the medium term. Afreximbank’s financing, we can now deliver the expansion phase of this project.
“The facility will allow us to add value to Nigeria’s raw materials, create quality jobs and increase the supply of our porcelain tiles, manufactured here in Nigeria, to customers at home and across the region.”
Adebutu said the company’s vision was to set a global benchmark for quality in tile manufacturing and become Africa’s first choice for porcelain tiles.
