Following the ongoing expansion drive by Dangote Cement as it concerns its Ibese Cement plant , with an additional 6 million metric tones the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, at a recent visit to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, revealed that Nigerians are set to enjoy increased availability of cement as he assured of increased availability of cement in the country.
He said that very soon, the supply of cement would be more than the demand and that will ultimately result in significant reduction of price of the commodity. Dangote further unveiled plans to expand the Ibese plant’s capacity to 12 million metric tonnes per annum. It would be recalled that the Ibese six million metric tons per annum Plant, was commissioned early this month.
Addressing dealing members and management of the Nigeria Stock Exchange during an interactive session in Lagos Tuesday, Dangote said agreements for the expansion of Ibese and Obajana plants had been signed. He disclosed with the planned commissioning of production line-three of the Obajana Cement plant Kogi State next month and the extra one million metric tonnes expected from Gboko plant Benue State, Dangote Cement is set to become the world’s largest cement producer.
These projects, he noted, will be ready in the next 26 months. Giving a presentation on “A Pan African Cement Producer”, he explained the thinking behind his plan for the spread of his cement project across other African countries, especially the sub-Saharan African countries. He observed that the group’s vision in building cement plants across Africa was to diversify risk across geographical boundaries, be the leading cement producer in Africa, the next logical step after achieving domestic dominance, capture demand in the large commercial centers with high population and urbanisation growth rates.
“Supply land locked countries which pay a very high price for imported cement. As of now, Dangote Cement is the fastest growing cement company in Africa as it presses on with an impressive expansion drive in spite of the tasking global financial climate”, he noted. Dangote said that the group was planning to build a 1.5 million metric tonnes per annum cement factory in Calabar, adding that with the abundance of gas in the area, it would be easier to produce clinker in Calabar and export the same to Gabon for cement production in the country.
He told the stockbrokers that the company aims to become a leading international cement producer and be ranked amongst the top eight cement producers by 2014. In his address of welcome earlier, the Director- General, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Oscar Onyema expressed happiness that Dangote Cement was the first Nigerian company to join the Forbes Global 1000 companies. He urged other Nigerian entrepreneurs to emulate Dangote in investing in the Nigerian economy, pointing that the size of the nation and the largeness of her population were a great incentive for genuine investors to latch on to.
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