Dangote Cement Initiates Clinker Export to Senegal and in a short while to different African Regions

By Abdul Rahman Bangura–

Photo Credit: Freepick

NEW AFRICA BUSINESS NEWS (NABN) Freetown, Sierra Leone- Dangote Cement, it’s surmised is one of the massive producer of the construction material in Africa, has commenced the exportation of clinker. And clinker is a product used to produce cement.

Evidently, the corporation on the June 14th, 2020 announced, it has shipped 27,800 metric tones of the product to Senegal.

Similarly, it was quoted that; it would again work in boosting the abundance of clinker export to other African countries within the next rare weeks.

According to news, the firm affirmed it wishes to position Nigeria on the map as one of the top clinker exporters in the world while seizing the windfall of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) pact.

Speaking during the departure of the ship conveying clinker from its export terminal in Apapa, Sada Ladan-Baki – Group Executive Director of Dangote Group, told the increased exportation of clinker and cement to other African countries would boost Nigeria’s foreign trade revenue and lessen unemployment in the country.

“The beauty of what we have done is that, we ae getting on to be producing 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,” he noted.

“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.”

Ladan-Baki stated, the firm has enabled Nigeria achieve self-sufficiency in cement production from being on the top importers of the product some years back.

He recounted the company would soon also launch an export terminal in in a way to foster the company export clinker, initially to its grinding facility in Cameroon and then to its new grinding plants across West Africa.

The director said, the effort would not only develop valuable foreign moolah for Dangote Cement to fund other expansion projects outside Nigeria, but it would also enable to improve the production of the Nigerian plants which would improve job innovation and strengthen prosperity in Nigeria.

“This terminal will assist Dangote to actualize the full potential of the company’s investment in cement. You know as usual when the rain comes, sales decline; but not clinker export.

“This feat by Dangote is going to generate a lot of jobs because being the export terminal has already created jobs to many Nigerians. As at now, the numbers of employed Nigerians at the terminal have reached 100. We are targeting about 200 to 300 workers in Lagos terminal alone.

“The exportation of clinker by Dangote will also help the country compete effectively with every country that is in the business of exportation of clinker. At Dangote Cement, we are going about it aggressively and we are seeing it as an opportunity.

“What we have in plan is to send clinker from Nigeria to Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Ghana. Cameroon as an example takes about 82,000 metric tones every month. Our target is to export at least four million metric tones of clinker annually to various parts of Africa.

“That is our target that we hope to achieve within the next one to two years.”

Acting Director – General of the Manufacturers of Nigeria – Chuma Oruche lauded the company for ushering the way in clinker export. He further noted that, the effort would be helpful to the Nigerian economy in terms of export revenue, job creation and wealth creation.