Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga
The Federal Government has expressed satisfaction with the level of work done so far in Dangote Cement Plant in Ibeshe, and Lafarge Cement WAPCO’s Lakatabu Cement plant in Ewekoro; both in Ogun State.
Government has described the projects as highly satisfactory, and a pointer to the fact that the country is on the verge of being self-sufficient in cement production.
Dangote Cement is concluding arrangements to commence production in its Ibeshe Cement Plant with installed capacity of six
million metric tonnes per annum, while Lafarge’s Lakatabu plant actually commenced test klinker production from its 2.5 million tonnes per annum plant at the time when the minister visited weekend.
The Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, who toured the two plants extensively, lauded the high pace at which work is going on at the sites.
“My intention for coming here today is to know about where we are in the concept of backward integration policy of government, so that government could set a target for the indigenous manufacturers on the way forward, but from what I have seen now, the Dangote Cement is a success story. I am pleased and satisfied with the high pace of work in the site and very optimistic that Nigeria will soon become self-sufficient in cement production,” he said.
“This is a success story in that some of the equipment we have seen here today are the biggest in Africa. With the situation I met on ground, I will do a memo to the Executive Council of the Federation on what we have achieved in the cement industry and these contributions have to be acknowledged”, the Minister said.
Commenting on the Lakatabu plant, Aganga hailed the high level of professionalism on the company in putting the plant together.
He said he was particularly thrilled that the plant was a model plant and first of its kind in the 78 countries where Lafarge carries out massive cement production.
He also commended the company for building the capacity of Nigerians who he said were visibly in charge of operational activities in the sophisticated plant.
Aganga stated that the government would work towards encouraging investments in other manufacturing sub-sectors so as to replicate the achievements recorded in the cement industry in other areas like sugar and rice productions.
Satisfied at the level of work on the Ibese and Lakatabu plants and the evidence of near term attainment of self-sufficiency in cement production, Aganga disclosed that the Federal Government would as a matter of necessity put in place a platform to recognise the contributions of entrepreneurs like Alhaji Dangote and Lafarge and the need to encourage them to do more so that other investors would be interested in the development of the nation’s economy.
In his words, “I must say that much has been achieved by Dangote Cement and Lafarge in an attempt to meet local demands. And
government would like to replicate these exploits in the production of rice, sugar and wheat.”
President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, in his remarks, explained that the investment of his company in the Nigerian economy was part of import substitution strategy adopted by the organisation to gradually move away from outright importation to local manufacturing.
This decision, he said, has helped the nation as its import bill has drastically reduced, with the organisation only having to complement local productions with imports while also diversifying into other production areas.
Dangote stated that the Ibese plant was part of the expansion drive of the Dangote group to ensure that by next year, the cement industry could produce for self-sufficiency and exportation.
He further explained that the Ibese plant was a fully automated factory with constant online monitoring to guarantee high quality cement, noting that the Company went for highest grade and the biggest equipment in the assembly of the plant.
Highlighting some of the challenges faced in the execution of the plant, Dangote said “We have raw materials on ground and all the processes are fully automated but we had to cast the foundation of the area because of the peculiar nature of the area.”
According to him, the two line plant being built with latest technology has a 70 kilometre cable linking the production process from limestone crushing to the bagging of the finished products.
“We have taken every care to ensure the production is hitch-free, we have three alternative production power source, Gas, Coal and Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO), with two stores with storage capacity of half a million tonnes.
“We have the biggest raw mill in the world here in Ibese plant; it took us one year to prepare the land because of the peculiar nature of the soil. And it takes 7 - 8 hours to complete the production from beginning to the end,” he said.
“In all our plants we ensure Nigerians are paired with their foreign counterpart in line with pour deliberate policy of job creation for the locals. We ensure Nigerians are part of the projects, all these are to ensure that we produce to meet local production and start exporting the product to Ghana and other countries,” Dangote stated.
He urged the Minister to use his office to help in formulating policies that will help local producers to be competitive in production, pointing out that there shouldn’t be any reason why imported products should be cheaper than the locally produced.
Dangote assured that with the investment in cement in other African countries and after meeting local demands, his organisation would move into local production of sugar to meet local demands applying the same growth strategy.
Also commenting during the inspection of the Lakatabu plant, the Managing Director of Lafarge Cement WAPCO, Mr. Samy Abdelkader, assured that his company is committed to making cement more available and affordable.
“We will use our latitude as an international company with presence in 78 countries across the world to boost our investment in Nigeria”, he said, and also stressed the readiness of his company to partner with the Federal Government in achieving the mandate of the recently refocused ministry of Trade and Investment.
President of Cement Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (CMAN), Joseph Makoju, called on the government to address the infrastructural deficit facing the nation, saying it was one main reason businessmen preferred to engage in importation rather than production.
