FG commends Dangote Cement self-sufficiency feat

The Federal Governmenthas officially confirmed that it has attained self-sufficiency in theproduction of cement and is now an exporter of the commodity, ascribing thefeat to Dangote Cement which spare headed the backward integration policyintroduced by the government.

Minister for Solid Minerals Development, Dr.Kayode Fayemi who leads a team of the federal government to the Dangote Cementplants in Ibese, Ogun State at the weekend said the government was happy withthe leadership roles played by Dangote Cement in executing the backwardintegration policy in the cement industry.

It would be recalled that the Group ManagingDirector of Dangote Cement, Onne Van der Weijde had last month whole presentingthe financial results of the company for 2016, declared that the Company hadcommenced exportation of Cement to Nigeria’s neighbouring countries.

He said: “We exported nearly 0.4Mt intoneighbouring countries and in doing so, we achieved a great milestone bytransforming Nigeria into a net exporter of cement.

“This is a remarkable achievement, given that onlyfive years ago, in 2011, Nigeria was one of the world’s largest importers,buying 5.1Mt of foreign cement at huge expense to our balance of payments. Wewill increase our exports substantially in 2017.”

Meanwhile, the Minister said it is a success storythat Nigeria which few years ago imported over 60 per cent of her cement needsnow can produce to meet local demands and still export to other nations, thisis highly commendable.

The Minister stated: “As you all know, as theFederal government moves to diversify the economy away from oil, two areas thegovernment is focusing on are agriculture and solid minerals, this is why weare embarking on tour of mining operations across the country to know thechallenges they face and what could be done to tackle those challenges.

“What Dangote is doing is marvelous. We need tocommend them. The way they led the backward integration policy to turn aroundour fortunes in the cement industry. I am delighted to see the development herebigger that what I saw the last time. And we are looking at how we canreplicate the successes in the cement industry in other non-oil sectors of oureconomy.”

Dr. Fayemi said besides the mining operations,government was also trying to see how the big plants are being in anenvironmentally friendly manner as observed in Dangote Cement.

“We need to collaborate and partner in these areasat this time that government is trying to reduce the dependence on oil. We needto tune around our mineral resources just as what obtained in cement sector.When you look at our solid mineral industry, there is a wide gap between whatwe can produce and what is consumed, importation in these sector is huge.”

Earlier while welcoming the Minister and hisdelegation, the Honourary Adviser to the President of Dangote Group, Engr.Joseph Makoju explained that Dangote Cement operates the largest cement miningoperations across the country.

He explained that Dangote Dangote cement alsooperates the largest coal mining to generate power as alternative to gas sincethe supply of gas has been plagued with incessant disruptions. He added thatover 50 per cent of power need of the cement plants are generated from coal.

The Ibese Plant Director, Amando Martines thenmade a presentation on the Ibese plants, how it was expanded from two lines of6 million metric tons per annum to four lines and can now produce 12 millionmetric tons per annum.

Dangote Cement is Africa’s leading cement producerwith nearly 46Mta capacity across Africa, a fully integrated quarry-to-customerproducer with production capacity of 29.25Mta in Nigeria.

Its Obajana plant in Kogi state, Nigeria, is thelargest in Africa with 13.25Mta of capacity across four lines.

The Ibese plant in Ogun State has four cementlines with a combined installed capacity of 12Mta. The Gboko plant in Benuestate has 4Mta. The company plans to build new factories in Ogun State (3-6Mta)and Edo State (6.0Mta).

In addition, it has invested several billiondollars to build manufacturing plants and import/grinding terminals acrossAfrica. Our operations are in Cameroon (1.5Mta clinker grinding), Congo(1.5Mta), Ghana (1.0Mta import), Ethiopia (2.5Mta), Senegal (1.5Mta), SierraLeone (0.7Mta import), South Africa (3.3Mta), Tanzania (3.0Mta), and Zambia(1.5Mta).