Nigeria cement firms have ramped up local productions to about 30 million tonnes yearly thus saving the West African country around $2 billion in foreign exchange, Abdulsamad Rabiu, chairman of BUA Group has said.
Dangote Cement, majorly owned by African richest man Aliko Dangote is the largest producers in the country with presence in 14 other African countries.
Dangote Cement's current total production capacity in Nigeria stood at 20.25 million tonnes per annual. Breakdown from its three existing cement plants namely Obajana (10.25MMTPA), Ibese (6.0MMTPA) and Gboko (4.0MMTPA).
Lafarge Africa, BAU and the other cement firms accounted for less than 10 million tonnes cement production locally.
Rabiu, who spoke on the sidelines of the Presidential Industrial Advisory Council chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday said the cement manufacturers will continue to save the country a lot of foreign exchange.
“If for example, you look at what we have produced in Nigeria today, maybe 25 million tonnes to 30 million tonnes, if we quantify that in terms of foreign exchange it is almost $2bn per year.
“That is a lot of money being saved because if we do not have these cement plants definitely we have to import cement.
“And not only do we have to spend money in terms of foreign exchange import but the price of cement definitely would have been higher than what it is today,’’ he said.
Rabiu also spoke about the expansion of his company’s facilities in order to make more cement available for local consumption.
According to him, we will be inaugurating our Sokoto plant next quarter, early 2018, and also our Edo second cement line will come on stream probably by the second quarter of next year.
Rabiu mentioned the reduction of price of Low Pour Fuel Oil, and the appreciation of the local currency in the foreign exchange market as things that helped the sub-sector to grow.
“The foreign exchange has also come down; it is stable even though as we all know the cement industry does not really require a lot of foreign exchange.
“But the fall in foreign exchange rate has really helped in terms of the things that we import into Nigeria like spare parts, some raw materials like gypsum,’’ the industrialist said.
“If for example, you look at what we have produced in Nigeria today, maybe 25 million tonnes to 30 million tonnes, if we quantify that in terms of foreign exchange it is almost $2bn per year.
“That is a lot of money being saved because if we do not have these cement plants definitely we have to import cement.
“And not only do we have to spend money in terms of foreign exchange import but the price of cement definitely would have been higher than what it is today,’’ he said.
Rabiu also spoke about the expansion of his company’s facilities in order to make more cement available for local consumption.
According to him, we will be inaugurating our Sokoto plant next quarter, early 2018, and also our Edo second cement line will come on stream probably by the second quarter of next year.
Rabiu mentioned the reduction of price of Low Pour Fuel Oil, and the appreciation of the local currency in the foreign exchange market as things that helped the sub-sector to grow.
“The foreign exchange has also come down; it is stable even though as we all know the cement industry does not really require a lot of foreign exchange.
“But the fall in foreign exchange rate has really helped in terms of the things that we import into Nigeria like spare parts, some raw materials like gypsum,’’ the industrialist said.
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