Algeria’s largest private firm, Cevital, is looking for banks to back its plans for a sugar refinery and oilseeds processing complex in Ethiopia, Cevital’s chairman Issad Rebrab told Reuters on the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum in Geneva.
“All in all, the figure will be about $360 million in total, but that’s just in Ethiopia, without counting the logistics platform at the port in Djibouti,” Rebrab said.
He was speaking after appearing on a conference panel alongside Ethiopian Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu and Aboubaker Omar Hadi, chairman of the Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority.
Cevital’s planned agro-industrial complex includes an oilseed crushing plant with a capacity of 3.5 million tonnes, a 1 million-tonne sugar refinery and a vegetable oil refinery of 750,000 tonnes, as well as food retailing units.
“We’re going to build it on a greenfield site. There’s nothing there now. We have the expertise, and we have all those activities in Algeria. We’ve built up the knowhow, and now we’d like our Ethiopian friends to benefit from it,” he said.
He did not specify a timeframe for the project.
“What we’re interested in is finding backers or banks who can work with us.” (Reporting by Tom Miles)
