Dangote Cement Assures 54,000 Workers, Remains Market Leader

By Fola James

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote said he has succeeded in keeping 54,000 Africans working with Dangote Cement, in their jobs, despite the troubling economic situation in the continent.

The feat, Dangote said, was made possible due to the combined efforts of the company’s employees, customers, suppliers and society at large, which he said will never be taken for granted.

“According to our 2019 socioeconomic impact assessment study specifically on our operations in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal and South Africa, we sustained 54,005 jobs (direct, indirect, induced) in these four markets in the year under review,” Dangote said during the company’s Annual General Meeting, AGM last week in Lagos.

The Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele has recently acknowledged the business man for building, the Dangote Refinery in Lagos, which the apex bank governor said, is capable of creating over 70,000 jobs by the time it’s completed.

The cement company operates in Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Ethiopia.

The business mogul disclosed that more jobs would be created as the company intensifies export of clinker to other neighboring countries from Nigeria this year.

The ongoing petro-chemical refinery project, analysts say, will create more than100,000 jobs.

Dangote, told the shareholders during the AGM that the 2019 was a tough time for the company, adding that the Group recorded volumes of 23.7 million metric tonnes and revenues of ¦ 891.7 billion.

According to him “We recorded a strong EBITDA margin of 44.3%. As a result of this performance, the Board has recommended for your approval a dividend of ¦ 16.00 per ordinary 50 kobo share.”

He said the Group’s arm in Nigeria performed well.

“Nigeria’s cement market grew slightly in 2019. We estimate that total market consumption was up between 2%-3% on the 20.7Mt estimated in 2018,” he said, adding that the modest performance was in spite of the challenging business environment, particularly, the 2019 elections which impacted negative on businesses.

He said “Dangote Cement’s Nigerian operations remained at 14.1Mt in 2019, including export sales of 0.45Mt. Domestic sales in Nigeria were nearly 13.7Mt, compared to 13.4Mt in 2019.

This implies a 2% growth mirroring the estimated GDP growth for the year. However, land exports reduced to 0.45Mt from 0.7Mt for the full year owing to the border closure in the last few months of 2019.”

Dangote stated further that “The Bag of Goodies promotion, launched in July, drove strong increases in our Nigerian volumes in the third quarter”, adding that the company was able to maintain its share in the country’s cement market despite the stiff competition.

He said the group has commenced export of clinker via shipping from the Apapa and Onne ports to West and Central Africa, adding that its offshore operation performance was encouraging.

He said the Pan-African operations sold 9.44Mt of cement in 2019, up 0.8% on the 9.37Mt sold in 2018.

Added to the “clinker, Pan-Africa volume was 9.6Mt, he said, adding that the total Pan-African volume represents 40.1% of Group volumes.

Pan-African revenues of ¦ 282.7 billion were 0.2% lower than FY 2018 and represented 31.7% of total Group revenues.

The region’s EBITDA contribution of ¦ 47.9 billion (before central costs and eliminations), represented 12.1% of Group EBITDA, at a regional margin of 16.9%, compared to a margin of 17.3% in 2018.”

He said the future is bright for the company because “we expect to further deploy our clinker and cement export strategy across West and Central Africa. The completion of our 1.5Mt grinding plant in Cote d’Ivoire is expected by the end of 2020.”