Dangote Group pledges to invest in more industries

Dangote Group, the largest conglomerate in Nigeria, has pledged to continue expansion and value-addition in Africa’s largest economy.

The group is also committed to investing in many other industries in the country to open up latent sectors and support government’s economic diversification drive.

Mansur Ahmed, executive director, stakeholder relations and corporate communications, Dangote Group, said the conglomerate will continue to diversify and bring new products into the market.

“We will be investing in more industries,” Ahmed said at the just concluded Lagos International Trade Fair.

“We will continuously increase the value-addition in Nigeria. In every sector we operate, our goal is to add value. In sugar, salt and many others, we will continue to add value. As we go forward, we will continue to do so—in petrochemical, in fertilizer, in oil & gas,” he said.

“In cement, we are today exporting and manufacturing in ten to 15 countries. Our aim is to bring foreign exchange into the country. We will continue to produce what is being imported, here in Nigeria,” he added.

Dangote Group has interests in cement, sugar, salt, beverages, tomato paste, rice, foods and beverages, among many others. The firm is Nigeria’s largest cement producer and has expanded into Ghana, Senegal, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Zambia and Ethiopia, among others.

According to Abayomi Shittu, deputy director, sales at Dangote Cement, the group’s cement capacity in Obajana, Ibese and Gboko is 29.3 million metric tonnes (MMT) altogether.

Shittu put the group’s cement capacity in Ghana at 1.5MMT; Liberia, 1.7MMT; Zambia, 1.5 MMT; Tanzania, 3.0 MMT; Ethiopia, 2.5 MMT, among others, stressing that Kenya’s plant is already ongoing.

Knut Ulvmoen, executive director, Dangote Group, and vice president of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the group has more than 8000 trucks across the country for the distribution of cement.

According to Ulvmoen, Obajana with 13.2 MMT is the largest cement factory in the world, adding that the group’s sugar refinery with a capacity of 1.4MMT is the second largest on the globe.

“We believe that we should not import sugar. Nigeria must be the largest importer of tomato paste in the whole world. We have to stop that.

“We are going to have our refinery. We are working hard to improve skills in Nigeria; that is why we have the academy,” he said, while stressing the group’s ongoing projects in pineapple and rice.

“I don’t know how much fish we are importing into Nigeria. Maybe we will look into fish. We believe everything should be made in Nigeria,” he added.