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Lagos. Two plants worth $1.8 billion that will supply fertilizer and methanol will be built in Nigeria by Indonesia firm Indorama, the company said on Tuesday, in the latest proposal to increase agriculture and power in Africa’s most populous country.

One plant will supply fertilizer to companies involved in agriculture, a sector in which President Goodluck Jonathan has pledged to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. The second facility will supply methanol to fuel local public transportation and industries, Indorama said in a statement.

“We are very committed to the development of the economy of Nigeria and the welfare of the Nigerian people through our investments,” Manish Mundra, Indorama managing director, said on Wednesday during a visit to Nigeria’s president.

The plants will be built in Port Harcourt, the largest city in the vast Niger Delta wetlands region, the heartland of Africa’s largest energy industry. They will be run by Eleme Petrochemicals, a former subsidiary of the state oil company bought by Indorama for $400 million when it was privatized in 2006.

Operations at the plants will start in 2014. They will make one million metric tons of ammonia and fertilizer, Indorama said.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest crude exporter and collects billions of dollars in oil revenue daily, but many of its 150 million people survive on less than $2 per day. Businesses and homes experience constant power outages.

To help improve the situation, the president launched a “gas revolution” in March, weeks before he won a presidential election. Power supply is one of the most important issues for Nigerians.

Reuters, Bloomberg