AWOKO NEWSPAPER high profile delegation of ADDAX BIOENERGY Directors and Shareholders representatives are currently in the country to finalise arrangements for the commencement of production of ethanol and its eventual export to Europe within the comings weeks. Since their arrival this week they have met with several stakeholders in the public and private sector and top Government officers in the Ministry of Agriculture, Trade and the Energy. They have also visited the ADDAX production and nursery sites in Makeni Northern Sierra Leone. During a meeting with Ministry of Trade Officers in Freetown the Chief Executive Officer of ADDAX BIOENERGY Simon Cleasby said the company has spent over twenty million United States Dollars outside their initial project budget towards production. The ADDAX CEO said the company has spent extra funds in putting up the necessary structures for the construction of the factory site at Mabelafu and other managerial expenses. He added that the factory will soon be commissioned and that the company will soon start its export of ethanol stating that they are now currently fixing up the necessary structures on storage facility in Freetown and that of the jetty at Kissy. Cleasby said ADDAX has over three thousand local workers and that the presence of his company in Sierra Leone is to do long term investment. Addax General Manager, John Moult said the company has already made the necessary arrangement for the power line connectivity to the National Power Authority. “We have paid for the connection and are also negotiating terms of the procurement and supply of power to the grid with the ministry of energy” General Manager Moult said. He disclosed that the Addax Board were paying a visit to the country, to assess the work done so far. The visiting team he said will also discuss about issues of the jetty, as well as the schedule date for the first export of ethanol, which he said will start soon. Speaking on behalf of the Ministry, Permanent Secretary, Sannah Marrah said the ministry is highly impressed with the operations of Addax to the extent that they are calling on other companies to emulate their footstep. The Chief Director at the Ministry Ahmed Akar Ahmed expressed positive sentiments about the addax operation making reference to the current work in progress. He described the visit of the company’s board as a sign of commitment while lauding the work so far done by the company. Addax Bioenergy is a sugarcane-based renewable energy company a subsidiary of AOG, which was established in Makeni in 2008 and it is expected to become operational in 2014. It has a consortium of eight European and African development finance institutions participating in the funding of the project. The project area is located approximately 15km west of the town of Makeni in the Chiefdoms of Makari Gbanti and Bombali Shebora in the Bombali District and in the Malal Mara Chiefdom in the Tonkolili District in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. The sugar cane estate covers an area of approximately 10,000 hectares. It will produce about 85,000m3 of ethanol per annum and approximately 100,000 MWh of renewable power per annum The refinery and the irrigation system for the sugarcane estates will be powered by the biomass plant, fuelled with sugarcane fibre residues. A capacity of up to 15 MW of power will be supplied to the national grid of Sierra Leone, significantly adding to the country’s overall electric power capacity. Construction of the distillery and power plant began in 2011 with production becoming fully operational in 2014. Friday March 07, 2014
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 00:31:36 +0000
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