LAGOS, Nov 2 – The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has provided an $81.9 million senior term loan to support the expansion of Veenocks Limited’s porcelain tile manufacturing plant in Sagamu, Ogun State, as the Nigerian manufacturer seeks to increase production capacity and pursue regional markets.
The expansion forms part of a project with an estimated total cost of $145 million and follows earlier support from Afreximbank through its Project Preparation Facility (PPF), which helped finance the studies required to establish the project’s commercial and financial viability.
In August 2024, Afreximbank and Veenocks signed a $2 million project preparation agreement covering technical, commercial, financial, legal, environmental and social assessments.
The studies, supported by the bank’s experience in pan-African trade and investment, helped Veenocks broaden its growth strategy beyond Nigeria. The company is now considering regional opportunities in Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Cameroon, Ghana, Mauritania and Senegal over the medium term.
Afreximbank’s $81.9 million senior term loan will finance the implementation of the plant’s expansion, including investment in additional manufacturing capacity. Once completed, annual production capacity is expected to increase threefold, from 3.3 million to 9.9 million square metres.
The expanded facility is expected to strengthen domestic supply while providing a larger production base for potential exports to neighbouring and regional markets.
The existing plant employs more than 200 people directly. The expansion is expected to generate an additional 300 direct jobs, alongside indirect employment opportunities across raw material supply, logistics and distribution.
Afreximbank said the $2 million preparation financing has been fully repaid from the senior debt facility, completing the project’s preparation funding cycle and replenishing capital for other projects.
Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice President for Intra-African Trade and Export Development at Afreximbank, said the project demonstrated how preparation financing and senior debt could support industrial investment and strengthen manufacturing capacity across the continent.
“Veenocks demonstrates how project preparation, commercial expertise and senior debt financing can support African industrial investment. The studies financed through Afreximbank’s Project Preparation Facility have helped strengthen the project’s bankability and broaden 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,” Awani said.
She added that repayment of the preparation financing would allow the bank to redeploy the capital towards other African businesses and projects.
“Full repayment of the preparation financing ensures capital is available 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,” she said.
Adebisi Abidemi Adebutu, Group President of R28 Holdings, the parent company of Veenocks Limited, said the investment would support the company’s ambition to build a globally competitive manufacturing business in Nigeria.
“This 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. The PPF was instrumental in broadening our growth plans and positioning us to penetrate regional markets over the medium term,” Adebutu said.
The expansion represents an investment in Nigeria’s domestic manufacturing capacity, with the potential to reduce reliance on imported tiles while creating opportunities for regional trade in locally manufactured building materials.
