Dangote Cement, Nigeria leading cement brand has projected a $600 million annual export to other markets in Africa in 2019.
This was disclosed recently by the President of Dangote Industries Limited, Alhaji Aliko Dangote at the 2018 Dangote Cement Distributors’ Award night in Lagos.
He said: “This year (2019), we will be the largest exporter of cement in sub-Saharan Africa with about $600m worth of cement that will be exported to other African countries with limited access to limestone.
“In addition, we also have new terminal coming up at Onne in Rivers and in Lagos. We are hopeful that the congestion at Apapa will soon be put behind, helping us to meet our export targets,” a statement from the group quoted him as saying.
According to him, the group is committed to ensuring that Nigeria becomes self-sufficient in all the sectors where it operates, such as cement, agriculture, mining and petroleum.
He added, “Let me reiterate that our continuous efforts to innovates, create value and invest in Nigeria are borne out of our firm belief in the vast economic potentials of Nigeria. This is also our desire to invest massively in agriculture in some states across the country.
“Our target is to ensure that Nigeria becomes self-sufficient in all the sectors where we play; cement, agriculture, mining and petroleum.” On backward integration the industrialist said, “Our push for background integration in providing our own raw materials on a massive scale has led to the planned investment of $4.6bn over the next three years in sugar, rice and dairy production alone.
“This will eliminate the country’s reliance on imported food and foreign exchange outflow that comes with it.”
Dangote, who commended the award winners for their commitment, noted that ceremony was to celebrate the firm’s valued customers and distributors for their unflinching partnership in ensuring that Dangote Cement products remained the first choice for construction purposes across the country
“Tonight, we celebrate excellence for 2018 performance and I am hopeful 2019 customers award ceremony will be an even bigger event. We have worked with our customers to agree on targets, we will also be giving out bonuses and working together to achieve our collective goals and objectives. We value our customers and cause without them we don’t have a business,” he added.