Construction Kaiser, Lafarge Ready-mix Nigeria seal pact on concrete supply

Moved by mutual understanding, confidence, trust and benefits, Construction Kaiser Limited, Nigeria’s foremost indigenous construction company, and Lafarge Ready-mix Nigeria (Lafarge Africa Plc) have entered into strategic agreement/partnership for the supply of ready-mix concrete.

By this agreement, which was signed at a brief ceremony in Lagos recently by Igbuan Okaisabor, the Vice Chairman of Construction Kaiser,  and  Loren Zanin, Chief Executive Officer, Aggregates & Concrete, Lafarge Africa, for their respective companies, Lafarge would be supplying all Construction Kaiser’s ready mix concrete needs nationwide.

Okaisabor remarked at the event that, with the signing of the agreement, Construction Kaiser would be leveraging the technological expertise of Lafarge to deliver high quality concrete to their various projects sites nationwide.

Zanin, on his part, assured that Lafarge Readymix Nigeria had a clear strategy as project enabler, driving quality and innovation forward and promoting a sustainable environment for generations to come, and explained that the company achieved this by working closely with valued customers and partners.

Fred Amobi, Director, Readymix Operations at Lafarge Africa, listed the advantages of using ready-mix concrete for different shades of construction work in Nigeria including consistent quality, speed, convenience, safety and cost effectiveness.

“We are happy to partner with credible local contractors. One of the things we consider when we partner with a local contractor is corporate governance. What is driving this relationship is the forward-looking disposition of Construction Kaiser. We have studied the company and found out that they have credibility and integrity and this is the kind of company we want to work with because of our history; we want to protect the image of the company”, Amobi stressed.

Lafarge Readymix Nigeria Limited, the Readymix arm of Lafarge Africa Plc, is a market leader in quality concrete solutions that began operation in Nigeria in September 2011. Leveraging LafargeHolcim’s experience, this market leader is producing quality and innovative concrete and aggregates solutions from various locations in Nigeria including Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourtetc, with plan to spread to other states of the federation in the near future.

Construction Kaiser, an indigenous construction company founded in Nigeria over 22 years ago with business offices in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja, remains the torch-bearer for indigenous construction companies in Nigeria.

Okaisabor explained that the partnership with Lafarge became necessary because, as an indigenous company, the major problem they were facing was lack of technology, adding that in order to bridge this gap, they didn’t have to wait until they acquired all the technology as that would take a long time.

“So, to leapfrog to the world class space, we have to go into partnership”, he said, adding, “we told ourselves  that to be able to operate at world class level with international best practices, the way to go was to partner with Lafarge which has seen it and done it all”.

Continuing, he said, “producing concrete is not our core business. Our core business is construction. If we have to go into producing concrete, we will get distracted from our core job of construction”, assuring that with time, the partnership would be considering such areas as training and affordable housing which, he said, was a very critical aspect our national life at the moment.