ALIMOTU SHADIAT

The third quarter of 2022, the Management of Dangote Cement has recorded an increase in the overall volume of cement sales by 6.2 percent to 20.8metric tons. This was achieved despite the elevated inflation that is due to a very volatile global environment.

To further increase the supply of cement across its operational base, the company has also commissioned its power plant at Okpella and is progressing well to deploy grinding plants in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.

Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Cement, Michel Puchercos, who disclosed this while presenting the third quarter results to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, over the weekend, further explained that “To mitigate the impact of the significant increase in energy and AGO costs, we are strengthening our efforts to ramp up the usage of alternative fuels. So far this year, we have co-processed 101,553 tonnes of waste representing a 77% increase over 9M 2021.

We are on track to commission our Alternative Fuel feed system at Obajana lines I and V, and Ibese line II in November. In addition, we are ramping up our investment in Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), to reduce our AGO usage”

To that end, he explained that the company recorded an increase in revenue of ₦1,177.3B, up 15.2% compared to last year, and Group EBITDA of ₦515.9B, up 0.2% with an EBITDA margin of 43.8%”

Dangote Cement, it would be recalled is Africa’s leading cement producer with nearly 51.6Mta capacity across Africa. A fully integrated quarry-to-customer producer, it has a production capacity of 35.25Mta in its home market, Nigeria. 

Obajana plant in Kogi state, Nigeria, is the largest in Africa with 16.25Mta of capacity across five lines while the Ibese plant in Ogun State has four cement lines with a combined installed capacity of 12Mta.  The Gboko plant in Benue state has 4Mta while the Okpella plant in Edo state has 3Mta. 

Through recent investments, Dangote Cement has eliminated Nigeria’s dependence on imported cement and has transformed the nation into an exporter of cement serving neighbouring countries.