The Dangote Group has expressed its readiness to make Nigeria a recognised nation in the global cement market–post 2016, in much the same way as Nigeria is a recognised oil and gas producer in the world.
The President, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, who stated this in Lagos at the annual dinner of the Lagos Business School (LBS) Breakfast Club, said it was time Nigeria started to look away from oil and gas and began to develop other viable sectors of the economy such as the cement industry.
“Given the abundance of the basic raw material for cement in Nigeria (21 out of 36 states), the Federal Government needs to consistently follow a set of policies deliberately designed to maximise the advantage of this endowment,” he said.
According to him, the Dangote Group is committed to fully meeting national cement demand by ramping up its domestic production capacity to 20 million metric tonnes per annum within the next 12 months.
Noting that the envisaged production target would exceed local demand, which falls below global average, he added that the group was working towards ensuring that Nigeria became a net cement exporting nation by 2011.
He expressed the desire of the group to list on a major international bourse in 2011, in line with its global aspirations, saying that the listing of Dangote Cement Plc on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recently, was a step towards this direction.
He said the merger between Dangote Cement Plc and Benue Cement Company Plc (BCC), which gave rise to the listing of the emergent company, Dangote Cement Plc on the Exchange, was designed to promote economies of scale and enhance operational efficiency.
He also restated Dangote Cement’s target of becoming one of the top 15 global cement producers in 2015, by which time it envisages a total capacity of 46 million metric tonnes in all its pan-African operations.
Dangote Cement currently accounts for more than 50 percent of the market in Nigeria and is expanding its plants across the country to match and surpass increasing local demand.
The group is also trying to consolidate its cement assets in other African countries as part of its strategy to become a major global player.
Already, the group has a cement plant in Ghana, which has commenced production, while it signed a $400 million (N60 billion) Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (IPPA) with the government of Zambia recently, to enable it to establish a cement plant in that country.
It is expected that the 1.5 million metric tonnes per annum cement plant would come on stream by 2013.
The group also recently, increased its stake in South Africa’s Sephaku Cement from 19 percent to 64 percent in a deal valued at R779 million-the highest foreign direct investment (FDI) by an African company in South Africa.
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