Chinwendu Obienyi
Dangote Cement Plc has said it is planning to export facilities of up to 8 million metric tonnes in Lagos and Port Harcourt even as it targets to attract about $700 million into the economy while creating jobs upon completion.
Going by the schedule, the terminals will be completed before the end of this year, the company said at its 10th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos on Monday.
According to the Cement company’s Chairman, Board of Directors, Aliko Dangote, the plants are being built to shore up the company’s market share and the project, which was delayed by equipment suppliers, will be ready before the end of the year.
Dangote said the terminals would rake in the millions of dollars in foreign exchange through cement exportation to sub-Saharan Africa while adding that the company will be opening export facilities within the terminals to export clinker and cement to its facilities in Cameroun and other African countries.
“Later in 2019, we will open export facilities in Lagos and Port Harcourt that will enable us export clinker, initially to our grinding facility in Cameroun and then to new grinding plans we are building in West Africa.
Not only will these generate useful foreign currency for Dangote Cement to support other expansion projects outside of Nigeria, they will also help to increase the output of our Nigerian plants.”
The company will be exporting cements through the terminals to Ghana, Cameroun, Sierra Leone and Congo, among others. Dangote said that the terminals would make Nigeria the biggest exporter of cement in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to him, the company’s capacity will increase on the completion of the terminals and the project will help to improve job creation and increase Nigeria’s prosperity. On dividends, he said that the dividend payment represented 52.4 per cent increase over the N10.50 per share paid in 2017. Specifically, the company declared N272.6 billion, which translated to N16 per ordinary 50k share, approved by shareholders.
The dividend was higher by 52.4 per cent against the N178.9 billion or N10.50 per share paid by the company for the 2017 financial year. Speaking at the meeting, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN) founder Sunny Nwosu lauded the company for the impressive dividend it declared last year.