07/06/2013 (Leadership Newspapers) - The profile of Nigeria’s palm oil industry is set for a quantum leap with the N10billon palm oil refinery being constructed by Pz Wilmar Limited which the company has described as the biggest palm oil refinery in Nigeria with the latest technology capable of processing 1,000, 00 tons per day at a cost of N1billion.

The facility  located in Ikorodu, Lagos State, according to the chief executive officer of PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc,  Mr Christos Giannopoulos, “will process crude palm oil in the most hygienic way  to fill the significant demand gap in the Nigerian market.”

He said the company will be investing  over a N100 billion  over the next few years  to develop  a 50,000 hectares of plantations and create 12,000 direct jobs and over 33,000 indirect jobs at various skill levels. The PZ Cussons CEO  maintained that his company  was committed to reviving the palm oil industry in Nigeria with its partnership with Wilmar Ltd. given the latter’s international expertise in palm oil business. “Already, the company has a 32,000 heactare palm plantation in  Cross River State, commissioned in November 2012, and over 600,000 high yield  palm plants have been transplanted with 2.1million of seedlings  at four nursery sites across the site”, he added.