Nigeria: Dangote exports 0.4Mt in 2016

Following a continuous increase in its production capacity, Dangote Cement marked the end of Nigeria’s dependence on imported product by exporting 0.4Mt in 2016.

In its 2016 audited results presented yesterday, Dangote Cement noted that in total it had sold 8.6Mt of cement outside Nigeria, a 54 per cent increase on 2015.

The export is significant given that the nation used to be a net importer of cement. In 2011 Nigeria was one of the world’s largest importers of cement, buying 5.1Mt of foreign cement.

While presenting the results, the company’s CEO, Onne van der Weijde, said: “The new year has started well and we expect much higher profitability in Nigeria in 2017, even though we may not see the volume growth we achieved in 2016. I am confident that we will deliver an even stronger performance in 2017 as we increase market share and extend our reach across Africa.”   

Economic challenges notwithstanding, Mr van der Weijde revealed that Dangote Cement achieved sales and revenue growth of 25 per cent.

Sales from Nigerian operations increased 13.8 per cent to nearly 15.1Mt and its total revenue leaped by 25.1 per cent to NGN615.1bn (US$1.95bn).