Sokoto Cement (Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc) will build two additional power plants by mid-2017 that will enable the company to generate at total of 60MW of electricity, reports All Africa.

The company currently generates 16MW electricity from its biomass plant for its use and for neighbouring communities. Sokoto Cement promised to reduce its current NGN1.3bn (US$4.1m) debt by increasing the price of its products, increase marketing strategies as well as reducing all administrative costs to the barest minimum.

The chairman of the company, Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu, said: "The project for production capacity increase and the conversion of the existing production line to solid fuels-coal is ongoing and is expected to reach completion by mid-2017, the use of solid fuels as the main energy for the kiln will considerably reduce the company's operational costs and its debt profile."

Mr Rabiu pointed out that it has been a difficult last 12-months: "The company has had to at intermittent periods during the last quarter of 2015 shut down the plant due to scarcity and high cost of energy. Despite some of these challenges, the Board resolved and recommended the payment of a gross dividend of 10kobo/share compared to the 35kobo it declared in the 2014 financial year."

According to him, during the year in review, the company also recorded a turnover of NGN13,037bn (US$41.4m) compared to NGN15,119bn recorded in 2014, while the profit after tax was NGN1201bn compared to NGN1918bn in 2014.

The chairman further explained, "Weak demand for cement particularly in the second half of the year, mainly contributed to the turnover and lower profits compared to that of 2014."