The Benin Plant of the Nigerian Bottling Company(NBC)says it would instal a 6.5megawatt power plant in July this year to boost its operation.
The company’s managing director, Jim Lafferty, who disclosed this in Benin, during a facility tour of the Benin plant, said the plant would serve as the sole source of power.
The billion-dollar project is being constructed in partnership with a power solutions company, Countourglobal Solutions.
Lafferty explained that the cost of maintenance of the plant would be borne by Countourglobal Solutions in the next 15years in order to allow the Nigerian Bottling Company meet its energy needs.
Speaking, the Construction Manager and representative of Contourglobal Solutions, Evans Igwe,stated that the gas plant is the best thing to happen to the bottling company in terms of power generation.
He said apart from boosting its operation, the plant would go a long way in reducing cost of energy due to the epileptic power supply in the country
“The gas-powered plant will, “not only produce the power requirement, but will also guarantee carbondioxide and steam requirement for factory need’’.
Lafferty also disclosed his company’s plan to embark on expansion of its programme in the next three months with a whopping N450billion.
“The planned investment would be on plant, which would on the long run place the company’s branch in Nigeria at par with its contemporaries in the wider world”, he said, “as it intends to acquire new plants that would compete with similar plants around the globe.”
He spoke on the Benin Plant and said it has since been repositioned after the fire incidence of 2008.
He said the paint in Benin, has since been repositioned after the fire outbreak of 2008, to become the most modern in Africa.
The Benin Plant Manager, David Iriabe, who also spoke during the tour said the ongoing re-organisation of the plant was meant to place it on competitive edge add give the company’s customers value addition services .
“As at 2000, when the plant started, we decided to preach a culture change but we did not get it quite right then, and after December 2008 when the plant was gutted by fire, we came out stronger, with massive training, home and abroad and putting in place a plant structure that put Nigeria on the world map of industrial innovation.”