The CEO
By Amechi Ogbonna
Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu, the Executive Chairman of BUA Group, a highly diversified and fast growing conglomerate, is an industrialist and philanthropist committed to the Federal Government’s vision of lifting millions of Nigerian citizens out of poverty through strategic investments in key sectors of the economy. To ensure Nigeria remains a preferred destination for more Foreign Direct Investments, Rabiu is partnering several development finance agencies across the world to create jobs for Nigerian youths while prioritising investment in infrastructure as game changer for the country.
As Chairman of Nigeria -France Business Council, Rabiu was among the Federal Government’s high level delegation that accompanied President Muhammadu Buhari to the maiden Nigerian International Partnership Forum in Paris, France on November 10, 2021, where the nation made a strong case for more investments from France and the global business community.
He spoke to Daily Sun on the sidelines of the Forum attended by top government officials and private sector business leaders from both countries.
BUA Cement was incorporated in 2008 and commenced operations in the same year through its floating cement terminals, ‘BUA Cement 1’, designed specifically for bulk and bag cement unloading.
In 2009 BUA Group acquired the Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, CCNN (Sokoto Cement) and the Edo Cement Company to boost and increase its metric tonnes of annual cement production in the country.
In the second quarter of 2015, the company signed a contract with FLSmidth for a 3 million mtpa new production line in Edo Cement to be sited at Obu, Edo state.
It went further in 2020, to consolidate its cement operations by listing BUA Cement Plc on the Nigerian Stock Exchange with a total combined installed capacity of 8million mtpa and a market capitalisation of N1.18trillon (US$3.3bn), making it the second largest cement producer in the Nigerian market and the largest cement producer in the North Western region of the country.
He spoke on several issues bordering on investments, infrastructure and how Nigerian can overcome its current economic challenges
Excerpts
Why Nigeria International Partnership Forum is important to Nigeria
You could recall that recently in Paris, France, the French President Mr Emmanuel Macron, inaugurated the first Nigeria- France Business Council and that Council has berthed major partnerships between French and Nigerian businesses in the past few months in different areas such as manufacturing, telecoms, healthcare amongst many others.
We have also seen partnerships at the National and Sub-National levels and various state governments are benefitting from these partnerships with the support of the French agencies and MDAs in Nigeria especially in the area of mining, agriculture amongst others. This comes as a positive news and I believe that if partnerships like these can be replicated in our relationships with other countries, Nigerian will be able to attract more investments that create more jobs for our people.
What opportunities do you see in these partnerships for Nigeria
I see numerous opportunities for cross border partnerships for Nigeria and Africa as a continent and very strategic to this is in the infrastructural space. Increasing our investments in infrastructure, creating access between borders and encouraging the free movement of goods and services under the AfCFTA agreement will rapidly make our supply chains more efficient. This would lead to a more robust trade among Africans and will make new industries emerge. Above all such partnerships will boost intra-African collaboration and all of these will ensure that Nigerians and Africans are better off.
We also need to see more significant partnerships between the African private sector and government and developed financed institutions to fast track growth and I believe that conversations will arise in that regard while we also challenge our approach towards the future of Nigeria and African continent.
Challenges facing Nigerian entrepreneurs
There is no country in the world without one challenge or the other and yet they have continued to find ways round it to make progress.
However, for Nigeria and African governments to make progress, there is need for them to increase investments in the infrastructure space and also ensure that they continue to work together on issues of poverty, economic instability, industrialisation and infrastructure development. The reason for this collaboration is to ensure that our future generations can compete effectively in terms of the aforementioned sectors among our peers, and it is our responsibility to create the enabling environment for that to happen.
What FG can do to strengthen private sector entrepreneurs
We are here to support not only members of the Nigerian- France Business Council, but also anybody who wants to do business in Nigeria and as the Minister of Foreign Affairs had said earlier, there are a lot of things that have begun to happen as regards ease of doing business and I believe we will make a lot of progress going forward.
I also believe that Nigeria is the next frontier economy. As the biggest economy in Africa, with almost 200 million people and diverse natural deposits, there are opportunities because there is nothing we do not have in Nigeria. In the midst of all these, we have the resources, the people, the land, water and agriculture is a big thing in Nigeria. In mining we are doing very well and so there are so many opportunities hence the need to see how we can harness the resources.
If you look at the mining and the cement sector and see what we are doing, you will realise that we are trying to create more opportunities as Nigeria is sitting on tons of different types of resources . So it is just important that we get the right partners to work together with us and I believe Nigeria is the best destination for investments and so I look forward to seeing a huge change in the Nigerian landscape.
So l see a lot of opportunities and that gives us access to our French partners and we are excited to chair this council to try and bring countries together to be able to harness and work on the opportunities Nigeria has. Being the biggest market, I believe there is so much we can do if we can gather the right partners.
How insecurity is affecting businesses
Security is a worldwide issue as we all know and fortunately our governments especially the Nigerian government are doing everything possible to make sure that they address these security issues. So I believe that in a matter of time our insecurity challenge will be a thing of the past especially give our commitment to work together.
Efforts to increase membership of Nigerian French Business Council
We are trying to get more members and working together with the council to be able to bring in new members from Nigeria and France to boost and foster the members of the council. Today as you can see, we have more Nigerian private sector business leaders in our midst to support the Programme we are holding and we are looking forward to get more members to support us grow bigger and achieve our mission which is to make Nigeria a world class investment destination.
About BUA refinery
In 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, we had committed ourselves to ensuring that our country ends this practice of massive importation of refined petroleum products from overseas refiners. This led BUA Group into signing an agreement with Axens of France for the supply of process technologies for our upcoming 10 million tonnes per annum megarefinery and petrochemicals facility to be sited in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria.
This multibillion dollar integrated 200,000 bpd refinery and petrochemical plant aims at producing Euro-V fuels and Polypropylene for our domestic and regional markets.
We chose Axens to drive the process after a comprehensive evaluation process, due to its advanced technology licenses, basic engineering, catalysts & adsorbents, proprietary equipment, training and technical services. The landmark agreement was signed between us and the CEO of Axens, Jean Sentenac, in a ceremony presided over by France’s Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, Franck Riester.
The 10million tonnes per annum refinery & petrochemicals project is in line with our vision to develop local capacity in key industries where we can add most value and where raw materials can be sourced locally.
When completed, the RFCC-based complex will produce high-quality gasoline, diesel, jet fuel that meet Euro-V specifications for the Nigerian market and the larger West African region.
In addition, it will produce propylene, an essential component for the petrochemical industry used in polypropylene-based plastics and packaging industries.
One advantage of this project is that it will help in reducing Nigeria’s dependence on imported fuels and petrochemicals.
This important to us because it is in the DNA of BUA Group to create efficient, innovative and sustainable businesses that will ultimately impact the lives of our people.
Look at our cement plants, they remain the most sustainable in Nigeria and same for our sugar plants.
Expanding our cement footprint
You could recall that shortly after the merger of Kalambaina Cement Company and Cement Company of Northern Nigeria where we assumed majority stakes in the enlarged company, BUA Group signed another
contract with world’s renowned cement manufacturing company, CBMI, for the construction of a new 3million metric tonnes per annum Kalambaina Cement Line 2 in Sokoto State, North West Nigeria.
This was barely 90 days after the completion of another 3million MTPA BUA Obu Cement line 2 in Okpella, Edo State, Southern Nigeria and 7 months after the commissioning of its 1.5million MTPA Kalambaina Cement Plant line 1 in Sokoto state thus bringing our total installed capacity to 11million MTPA by the time we complete the new project.
The construction of the new 3million mtpa kalambaina line was in line with our strategic midterm expansion programme, because we know the Nigerian market is still greatly underserved and with the projected growth in major infrastructure projects and spending over the next few years, it is important that local manufacturers are able to scale up effectively to meet current and projected
demand.
It is also important to know that this partnership between BUA and Sinoma CBMI is not the first as they were also responsible for constructing the first BUA Kalambaina plant in Sokoto State.
We are very confident in that transaction because we know that Sinoma CBMI possesses the necessary technical expertise given its track records in deploying cement plants across the world.
Our strategic cement expansion programme focusing on key regional and export markets has seen us become the second largest producer of cement by volume in Nigeria. It also consolidates leadership positions in the North West, South South and South East Markets of Nigeria. “We will continue to deliver quality products which has earned us the ‘King of Strength ised company on the Stock Exchange became possible after the Security and Exchange Commission approved the merger of the Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc with BUA’s Kalambaina Cement Company Limited of Nigeria.
With that consolidation, BUA Group’s current cement assets now include the 6million MTPA Obu Cement I & II plants in Okpella, Edo State, the 500,000mtpa Edo Cement Plant, the 1.5million MTPA Kalambaina Cement Plant and the 500,000 Sokoto Cement Plant. The Group also owns over 90 percent stake in the publicly listed Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc and is widely acclaimed for its high capacity utilisation, efficiency and quality of its products.
About Abdul Samad Rabiu Initiative (ASR Africa)
The Abdul Samad Rabiu ASR Initiative is the key driver of Group’s Corporate Social Responsibility objective and brainchild of the BUA Group aimed at supporting social development strategies of governments in Nigeria and across Africa.
When ASR Africa initiative began, we had set aside $100 million yearly for various interventions in health, education and social development.
However in the first nine months, we have demonstrated how passionate we are about social impact and development especially in the areas of healthcare delivery, education, social development, and sustainable infrastructure across the country and Africa.
The Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa) was established in April 2021 to provide sustainable, impact-based homegrown solutions to developmental issues affecting Health, Education and Social Development within Africa.
The ASR Africa Initiative is focused mainly on Education, Health and Social Development in Africa to equip educational facilities, researchers, healthcare practitioners and community-level service providers while also supporting efforts of various levels of government in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa in the same direction.
Against this backdrop, we have listed the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; University of Maiduguri; University of Ilorin; University of Ibadan, and University of Benin among beneficiaries of N1billion each in the first cohort of the intervention grant.
In view of this and starting immediately, we intend to be on ground to commence the project. We have also continued to support other five universities as they identify their priority projects with our team to fast-track the project initiation.
It is our belief at the ASR Africa Initiative that this support will go a long way in bridging the infrastructure deficit in education within Nigeria and other African countries in our cohort. We are excited about the endless possibilities that lie ahead of Africa and because the time for Nigeria and Africa is now and business development is nothing without citizens’ development.
So we look forward to commencing work to build for the benefit of Africa’s children and its future.
Already, the ASR Africa Initiative has provided a grant of N1billion to Ahmadu Bello University as part of its yearly $100million ASR Africa Fund for Social Development & Renewal. We believe the grant will go a long way towards the provision of a Hostel and Department Building as identified by the University.
We have also awarded the Ogun State Government the sum of N2.5billion, Africa Tertiary Healthcare Systems Support grant towards the construction of a Mother & Child Hospital at the state-owned Olabisi Onabanjo University.
The N2.5billion grant, which we presented to the Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun at a ceremony in Abeokuta, was also drawn from the $100mil-lion annual ASR Africa Fund for Social Develop-ment and Renewal.
The grant was part of efforts of BUA Group to give back to Nigeria and the Africa continent for their patronage and support over the years.
The state-focused Tertiary Healthcare Systems Support Grant was awarded to Ogun State and 3 others in 2021 in recognition of their current efforts in delivering quality healthcare services and infrastructure within those states.
We believe that upon completion, the N2.5billion ASR Africa Maternal & Child Hospital will boost tertiary healthcare delivery system, train adequate personnel, and drastically reduce maternal and child mortality rates in Ogun state.”,
Similarly the Edo State Government has received a grant of N2.5billion towards equipping of the New Stella Obasanjo Hospital in Benin City currently being reconfigured, upgraded and expanded to a 250-bed specialist hospital.
The donation makes Edo State the fourth state after Sokoto, Ogun and Kwara states to receive a N2.5billion grant from ASR Africa’s N10billion Tertiary Healthcare Systems Support Grants Scheme for 2021 drawn from the Annual ASR Africa $100million Fund for Social Development and Renewal.
Gift to Nigeria
BUA Group last November also donated and handed over a newly built 150-bed hospital valued at over N4billion to the Nigerian Police in Abuja. The hospital, which is the first donation of its kind to the Nigerian Police, is called the “ASR Africa Police National Reference Hospital, Abuja. It was developed at a cost of N4billion with funding drawn from the annual $100million ASR Africa Fund for Social Development and Renewal.
Footprints across Africa
On the African continent and in line with our mandate, ASR Africa has extended support to the Ghanaian Government, through its Ministry of Education, a $3 million education infrastructure support grant from (ASR Africa).
The grant will be drawn from ASR Africa’s annual $100 million Africa Fund for Social Development and Renewal and was announced during the presentation of the letter of award to the Ghanaian Government at the Jubilee House in Accra, recently.
The award was significant because Ghana is also the first African country beneficiary of an ASR Africa grant after Nigeria.
We believe this $3 million ASR Africa education infrastructure grant will go a long way in supporting the eradication of ‘schools under trees’ across the country whilst developing primary education infrastructure across the country.