Dangote Cement has officially commenced export of cement from its Ibese Cement Plant, Ogun State to Ghana. The commencement of the export is coming on the heels of the meeting of national demand for cement by Nigerian cement manufacturers.
Last week, 50 silo trucks laden with bulk cement were packed at the Idiroko border town waiting for clearance to proceed towards Ghana through Benin and Togo Republics.
The cement company will be exporting 50 silo trucks of cement or 5,000 tons of bulk cement from the Ibese Cement plant on a weekly basis to Ghana and at the completion of all logistics, about 50 trucks will be leaving on a daily basis.
The President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote , had in a recent interview with Reuters in London disclosed that the company would as from end of 2012 begin export of cement to some ECOWAS countries in view of its envisaged excess local capacity of more than 20 million metric tonnes and the huge demand for the product in the sub-region.
As part of its strategy of capturing the ECOWAS market, he said Dangote already has a cement terminal with a bagging capacity of 1.5 metric tonnes per annum in Ghana, noting that there are good market opportunities in other neighbouring countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote D Ívoire, which lack limestone, one of the basic raw materials used in the production of cement.
He said, “The only thing that we need to do is quickly to create that avenue of exporting cement rather than importing cement”.
Dangote Cement commissioned its first overseas Cement Terminal in 2011 in Accra Port, Ghana with a bagging capacity of 1.5MTPA. The Terminal also enables Dangote Cement supply to the neighbouring landlock nations which pay very high cost for cement due to transport cost.
The export to Ghana will provide an avenue to sell surplus cement resulting from excess local capacity in Nigeria and at the same time meet high demand for cement in Ghana.
Dangote Cement has three operating plants in Nigeria at Obajana Kogi State, Ibese Ogun State and Gboko Benue State.
The activities of the cement plants have created thousands of direct and indirect employment opportunities in the domestic economy leading to major cement distributors pouring encomiums on Alhaji Dangote.
Alhaji Bala Muhammad Getso, Chairman, Giwa Dynamic Ventures Ltd said that entrepreneurs like Aliko Dangote are needed to drive the economy as they create massive employment opportunities. Alhaji Getso, who described Dangote Industries Ltd as the biggest employer of labor after the Federal Government, urged Government to ban importing of cement in any form as to encourage domestic manufacturing.
He said, “Dangote is the biggest employer of labor after the government. We need such people who establish industries that build the economy. I commend him for venturing into manufacturing and
keeping people gainfully employed. The distributors are gainfully employed, builders are gainfully employed. People in the construction industry are gainfully employed.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Add A Comment