Tycoon Stella Okoli raises $19.8m to build antimalarial plant

Stella Okoli’s Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries has raised a N26.7 billion ($19.8 million) bond at a 19 percent coupon to complete an antimalarial active pharmaceutical ingredient plant that has now missed two announced start dates.

The five-year Series 1 fixed-rate issue was listed on FMDQ Exchange through Emzor Pharma Funding SPV Plc, the company’s second domestic bond, and was oversubscribed. It forms part of a wider N40 billion ($29.6 million) programme. Proceeds go to working capital, manufacturing capacity and completing the API facility at Sagamu in Ogun State.

APIs are the active substances that make medicines work, and almost none are made in sub-Saharan Africa. Nigerian manufacturers import them, which exposes them to foreign-exchange shortages, naira volatility and supply-chain shocks. Emzor’s plant, billed as the first full-scale antimalarial API facility in the region, is the most advanced attempt to close that gap and it is being financed at a cost of capital that shows how expensive the attempt is.

A 19 percent naira coupon over five years is steep for a manufacturer, and it reflects Nigerian yields rather than anything specific to Emzor. It means the Sagamu plant must clear a high hurdle rate to justify itself and it is being paid on a project that has not yet produced.

Emzor unveiled plans for the $23 million Sagamu facility in 2024. In March 2025 it was reported as opening in late 2025. By August 2025 the target had moved to early 2026. It is now the end of August 2026 and the bond proceeds are described as accelerating its completion. The company has not published a revised commissioning date.

The plant is intended to make antimalarial inputs first, then expand into HIV antiretrovirals and other essential medicines.

Okoli, a pharmacist, started Emzor as a small chemist shop in Lagos in 1977. It is now among Nigeria’s largest indigenous drugmakers. Her fortune has been estimated at more than $80 million, placing her among Africa’s wealthiest women and its leading pharmaceutical entrepreneurs.