By Dipo Olowookere
In the coming weeks, Dangote Cement Plc will commission its factory in Okpella, Edo State, the company has confirmed.
Recall that earlier, Dangote Cement had said work was underway to increase its total cement production capacity in Nigeria by 4.5Mt/year before September 2021.
In a press statement issued at the weekend, the cement maker said when the new Okpella plant comes on stream, it would make the product readily available to consumers.
Ahead of this, the firm has acquired more trucks to aid the distribution of cement and fertilisers across the country.
“The newly acquired trucks are expected to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Dangote Cement Logistics network of distribution nationwide, as the company plans to commission its new cement plant in Okpella Edo state in a few weeks,” a part of the statement obtained by Business Post disclosed.
Dangote Cement prides itself as Sub-Saharan Africa’s leading cement company with a production capacity of 48.6 million tonnes per year across 10 countries.
The company is a subsidiary of Dangote Industries, which was founded by Mr Aliko Dangote in 1981 as a trading business with an initial focus on the importation of bagged cement and other commodities such as rice, sugar, flour and salt.
Over time, the group began to import bulk cement into the Apapa and Port Harcourt terminals, which it then bagged for distribution. Through the 1990s, it made a strategic decision to transition from a trading-based business into a fully-fledged integrated manufacturing operation.
In 2000, Dangote Industries acquired Benue Cement Company from the federal government as part of its privatisation exercise. BCC operated a 0.9Mta plant in Gboko, which was subsequently upgraded by the group to 2.8Mta.
Two years later, the firm acquired Obajana Cement Plc from the Kogi State Government, though no factory existed at this time and in 2004, it commenced the construction of its first cement production factory, the Obajana Cement Plant, which was commissioned in 2007 with two production lines and capacity of 5 million tonnes per annum, making it the largest plant in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2012, Dangote started the Ibese factory in Ogun State, with 6Mta across two lines and in the same year, the Obajana plant increased its capacity by 5Mta with the opening of Line 3.
