The Standard Organisa-tion of Nigeria (SON) has awarded Dangote Cement Plc with NIS BS OHSAS 18001: 2007 and NIS 9001: 2008 Quality Management System certificates.
Speaking at the ceremony in Lagos, SON’s outgoing Director-General, SON, Dr. John Ndanusa Akanya, praised Dangote Cement for its commitment to meeting quality standard, saying, " by this achievement, the company has joined the lofty class of Occupational Health and Safety /Quality Management System certified companies in Nigeria".
He hailed the company for becoming the first cement firm to achieve this certification, saying: "Dangote Cement has already dominated Africa and will continue to provide employment for not only Nigeria but Africa as a whole."
According to him, " the relevance of quality and continual improvement in the current competitive market environment, which focuses on customer satisfaction cannot be overemphasised, being extremely important in expanding the organisation’s local and export trade capabilities, raising the competitiveness of its services and goods in the market and thereby improving the organisation’s image."
He disclosed that SON has certified Dangote Cement’s three plants, which include: Dangote Cement in Apapa, Obajana Cement plant and Benue Cement plant in Gboko.
"The model of these systems, to which Dangote Cement Plc system is being certified shifted emphasis from conformity to rules and regulations to actual performance output and aims at the development of Occupational Health and Safety /Quality Management System that provides for continual improvement and customer focus with emphasis on reduction of waste in the supply chain. The ISO system certification is a mark of conformity of management systems to generic requirements and as we are all aware, quality is a moving target and as such does not have a finishing line."
The company unfolded plans to raise its production output to 45 million metric tonnes by the year 2015.
The planned increase in capacity, according to the Group President, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is meant to support its pan African investment target of setting up plants in eight African countries before 2015.
Accordingly, the company has already concluded plans to invest about $100 million (N15.24 billion) to build a cement factory in Cameroun.
According to Dangote, the planned investment in Cameroun is coming on the heels of the Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement between Dangote Industries Limited and the Government of Zambia. The agreement marked a significant milestone in Dangote’s quest to establish a cement plant in that country. The value of the investment is estimated at $400 million (N60 billion).
The group has also formally increased its stake in South Africa’s Sephaku Cement (Pty) Limited, from 19.76 per cent to 64 per cent in October in a transaction estimated at R779 million (N17.35 billion), making it the largest ever foreign direct investment by an African company into South Africa.
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