Sonoco secures US$23M loan to build Sierra Leone’s first wheat flour mill

Sonoco Ltd. has secured a US$23 million senior loan from Proparco, the private-sector financing arm of the French Development Agency (AFD), to support the construction and working capital requirements for the development of Sierra Leone’s first industrial-scale wheat flour mill and silo storage complex in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The financing will cover the development of a 600-tonnes-per-day flour mill, designed to produce up to 140,000 tonnes of flour annually. In addition, the project will include an integrated storage capacity of 40,000 tonnes, enabling more stable grain handling and year-round flour availability. The investment represents the first industrial-scale flour milling operation in Sierra Leone, a country of about 8.8 million people that has historically depended entirely on imported wheat flour. Sadio Dicko, Proparco’s Regional Director for West Africa, emphasized the importance of the investment. “This world-class wheat flour production unit will enable the ...