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Press Release

Monday, December 19, 2005

U.S. Small Business Uses OPIC Loan to Establish Flour Mill in Nigeria

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A U.S. small business will use a loan from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to establish the only flour mill in Akwa Ibom State in southeastern Nigeria, providing a basic staple to an underserved segment of the country’s population, OPIC President and CEO Robert Mosbacher, Jr. announced today.

OPIC will provide a $6.7 million loan to a subsidiary of Deamar Group, a New York-based agribusiness company, for construction and operation of a flour mill for the manufacturing of bread flour in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom. The mill will also produce wheat offal, a by-product used to feed livestock. The flour will be sold to flour distributors and commercial bakeries in Akwa Ibom’s main towns, the offal to farmers and owners of livestock. The mill will produce 200 metric tons of flour per day.

The mill will source its wheat – principally hard red wheat – for the flour from international markets but primarily from the United States. Nigeria is the United States’ third-largest export market for wheat and the largest export market for hard red winter wheat.

Although demand for wheat flour in Nigeria has grown significantly in the past ten years – since 1998, the volume of retail bread sales has risen over 80 percent – only 60-to-65 percent of Akwa Ibom’s population has access to sufficient supplies of bread flour.

“This project will have a profound impact on the nutritional development of Akwa Ibom’s population, providing a basic staple to thousands of Nigerians on a daily basis,” Mosbacher said. “Moreover, it is supported by the American wheat industry, which will source the wheat for the mill. We at OPIC are pleased to support a project with developmental and economic benefits for both the Nigerian and American wheat industries.”

The project is a joint venture between Deamar and the Akwa Ibom Investment and Industrial Promotion Council (AKIIPOC). AKIIPOC, established in 1996, is the primary agency implementing the state government’s investment and industrial promotion initiatives. It supervises the government’s economic development programs and institutions.


OPIC is the U.S. Government’s development finance institution.  It mobilizes private capital to help solve critical development challenges and in doing so, advances U.S. foreign policy.  Because OPIC works with the U.S. private sector, it helps U.S. businesses gain footholds in emerging markets catalyzing revenues, jobs and growth opportunities both at home and abroad.  OPIC achieves its mission by providing investors with financing, guarantees, political risk insurance, and support for private equity investment funds.

 

Established as an agency of the U.S. Government in 1971, OPIC operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to American taxpayers. OPIC services are available for new and expanding business enterprises in more than 150 countries worldwide. To date, OPIC has supported nearly $200 billion of investment in over 4,000 projects, generated $74 billion in U.S. exports and supported more than 275,000 American jobs.