PZ Cussons Plc sees a joint venture to refine and sell palm oil in Nigeria as potentially generating “several hundred million dollars” or more of annual revenue for the two partners, its finance director said.

The UK maker of Imperial Leather soap and its venture partner, Singapore’s Wilmar International, plan to build a plant outside the Nigerian capital Lagos that will employ a “couple of hundred” workers, Brandon Leigh said in a telephone interview today. He declined to give a time scale for the projected sales.

The Manchester, England-based company and Wilmar, the world’s largest palm-oil trader, are seeking to capitalise on growth in Nigeria, Africa’s second-biggest economy after South Africa. PZ Cussons already employs about 5,000 in the country, where it sells skin- and hair-care products, refrigerators and air conditioners, and milk and yogurt in a venture with Glanbia Plc, Leigh said.

“It’s 160 million people, we have great distribution across Nigeria,” he said. “The PZ name is well known.”