As part of its economic diversification efforts, the Dangote Group of Companies has begun exportation of clinker to neighboring African countries with the first exportation, by one of the company subsidiaries, Dangote Cement totaling 27,800 metric tonnes.
It explained that the development was to place Nigeria as one of the leading clinker exporters in the world after the company attained the biggest cement producer in Africa.
Group Executive Director, Dangote Group, Sada Ladan-Baki, said with the maiden voyage from the company’s Export Terminal located in Apapa Port, Dangote Company has placed Nigeria on the world map from being one of the world’s largest bulk importers of cement to be self-sufficient in cement production, and now an exporter of cement clinker to other countries.
Speaking during the departure of the ship conveying clinker from the Export Terminal at the weekend, Ladan-Baki said the exportation would enable Dangote Cement to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area, and by so doing contribute to the improvement of intra-regional trade within the ECOWAS region, adding that the company is expected to increase the quantity of clinker export to other African countries.
According to him, the increased exportation of the clinker would also boost Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings and reduce unemployment in the country.
“The beauty of what we have done is that we are going to be generating foreign exchange for the country in terms of dollars and Euros. For every batch of clinker we export, the money comes back to Nigeria. The amount we are talking about is not small. Presently, Dangote Cement should either be number one or number two exporter of cement in Africa and the revenue we have generated in the form of foreign exchange is running into millions. Today, we have formally launched the Dangote Cement Export Terminal. We are still going to do another major launch when the second ship is going out of the country,” he added.
He explained that the development will open up employment opportunities for youths in the country, saying plans have also been concluded to increase its clinker and cement export to other countries.
“This vessel, being the maiden ship is exporting 27,800 metric tonnes to Senegal and this is just a tip of the ice-berg as to what we have in plan. What we have in plan is to send clinkers from Nigeria to Ivory Coast, Cameroon, and Ghana. Cameroon as an example takes about 82,000 metric tonnes every month. Our target is to export at least 4 million metric tonnes of clinker annually to various parts of Africa.
“That is our target that we hope to achieve within the next one to two years. This particular voyage is going to our sister company in Senegal. We have an integrated plant of 1.5 million tonnes and this one is expected to give the plant additional clinker that is required for the plant to sustain production. In the next week or two, we are going to be shipping 82,000 metric tonnes to Cameroon in batches of about 25,000 to 29,000 metric tonnes per voyage,” he added.
