- State Allocates 100 Hectares for Equity Stake; Targets ₦300bn Annual State Economic Value
- Two-Phase Facility to Produce Titanium Sponge and Supply U.S. Aerospace, Defence Supply Chains
AKURE — The Ondo State Government has signed a public-private partnership agreement with United States-linked chemical manufacturer PyVee Limited to construct a $362 million fully integrated titanium value-chain processing complex in Ilaje Local Government Area.
The pact, finalized on Saturday at the office of the Secretary to the State Government in Alagbaka, Akure, sets up West Africa’s first and Africa’s second fully integrated titanium processing facility, tying Nigeria’s raw ilmenite deposits directly to international aerospace and defence markets.
Under the transaction brokered by the Ondo State Development and Investment Promotion Agency (ONDIPA), the state has committed 100.079 hectares at Alape along the Igbokoda–Ugbonla Road in exchange for an equity interest in the operating Special Purpose Vehicle, PyVee Nigeria Titanium Limited.
Project promoters selected the Alape site for its access to lagoon water, local natural gas infrastructure for captive power generation, and proximity to both the proposed Deep-Sea Port and export channels along the Lagos–Calabar Coastal Corridor.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PyVee Limited, Peter Oladipupo, disclosed that the capital program will unfold across two developmental stages, beginning with an initial $12 million Phase 1 commercial pilot facility scheduled to achieve commercial operations within 21 months.
Oladipupo said the subsequent expansion into a full-scale industrial complex will take total investment past $350 million, creating an estimated ₦300 billion in annual gross economic value for Ondo State and over ₦480 billion nationally.
The modular processing units will be fabricated by an engineering partner in the United States, shipped to Nigeria, and assembled on-site to refine local ilmenite ore into titanium dioxide pigment, titanium sponge, niobium-titanium alloys, and selected rare earth derivatives.
Project financial modeling projects 150 direct jobs during the pilot stage, scaling to 800 direct positions and over 5,000 indirect and induced jobs once the full-scale industrial plant comes online.
Oladipupo added that the company draws technical guidance from an advisory board comprising Purdue University engineering faculty, a former DuPont vice president, and domestic petroleum refining veterans formerly attached to the Dangote complex.
Beyond the land concession, the state administration agreed to assist the venture in securing statutory permits, coordinating host community relations, facilitating raw material access, and providing auxiliary perimeter infrastructure.
Chief Executive Officer of ONDIPA, Emmanuel Omomowo, said the equity-for-land transaction protects public capital by giving the state permanent ownership returns rather than an ephemeral cash receipt for public acreage.
Omomowo stated that the de-risking framework developed by the agency guarantees that the state acts as an invested commercial principal whose balance-sheet returns track the long-term earnings of the plant.
Secretary to the State Government, Taiwo Fasoranti, affirmed that the deal executes Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s industrialization strategy by prohibiting the unrefined extraction and flight of mineral wealth.
Fasoranti maintained that the administration remains focused on retaining industrial processing capacity within state boundaries to generate domestic employment and establish an enduring industrial tax base.
