By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Acting Group Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Cement Plc, Mr Joe Makoju, has disclosed that the cement maker plans to build two new grinding plants in Nigeria before the end of 2020.
Mr Makoju revealed this information to shareholders of the firm at the yearly general meeting of the company held recently in Lagos.
According to him, these two new plants would likely be situated in Edo State and Obajana in Kogi State.
He added that the cement manufacturer is looking at siting its grinding plants along the coast of West Africa.
“As it stands, I think we will focus on building new grinding plants along the coast of West Africa, and ensure we have clinker export facilities in Nigeria.
“We are looking at the possibility of two new lines in Nigeria, perhaps by the end of 2020 and it is likely these will be in Edo state and Obajana, with a combined capacity of 6Mta,” Mr Makoju said.
Speaking on the success made by the company last year, the Dangote Cement chief said it was mainly due to the management’s decision to “increase our use of local coal in Nigeria,” emphasising that it helped to “improve our fuel security, maintain production uptime and reduce our need for foreign currency.”
According to him, “We source coal from our parent company, Dangote Industries and from another Nigerian supplier, and we are very happy with the way this has worked out for us because it has enabled us to phase out the use of expensive low pour fuel oil in our kilns and also to reduce our use of imported coal.”
On his part, Chairman of Dangote Cement, Mr Aliko Dangote, attributed the 31 percent increase in the company’s revenue of N805.6 billion to its pan African operations growth which also recorded a significant increase in revenue from N195 billion to N258.4 billion in 2017.
“Pan African operations increased volumes by 8.4 percent, with Ethiopia, Senegal, Cameroon and South Africa all performing strongly and close to their operating capacity,” Me Dangote said.
Noting that the company experienced some challenges in operating in sub-Saharan Africa, Mr Dangote said the management responded in a robust fashion and benefited from “…the diversity we have created across our business and because of our local knowledge and attitudes towards doing business in neighbouring countries in Africa.”
Adedapo Adesanya