Dangote Cement and Nigerian Companies' Quest for Continental Presence

Crusoe Osagie writes on the growing international foray of Nigerian companies and the hurdles scaled by a recent move by Dangote Cement to set up a factory in Cameroun

Nigerian companies of late have been on the road, making footprints on the continent. The eye on the continent has been led by the likes of Dangote, United Bank for Africa, Guaranty Trust Bank to mention a few.

Dangote Cement, however has just berthed in neighboring Cameroun, a move fuelled by the growing demand for cement to develop infrastructure in Africa, which has remained a serious challenge on the continent.

Managing Director, Dangote Cement, Cameroun, Mr. Abdulahi Baba, says this is one major reason behind Dangote's resolve to spread cement investment across Africa, to ensure that Africans prove a point  that indigenous companies can produce the highest quality cement to meet the varied needs for the product across the African continent.

"We have the technology, we have the financial muscle, we have the human capital, an all other needed resources, so we do not have to wait for western efforts before we can produce one of the most essential product for our development"

With massive operations in Benin, Cameroun, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Ethiopia and others coming on stream, Baba said it is the company's primary objective to be the provider of industrial and infrastructure security for Africa.

He argued that if Africa endlessly depend on Europe, Asia and others for the production and supply of the building material like cement with which to improve amenities in the region, then the continent would only be able to grow at a pace regulated by these foreign regions.

"To take our collective destinies in Africa in our own hands, one of the products for which we must ensure we have considerable local content is cement. The more of it we can produce in-continent, the more liberated Africa becomes from western economic powers," he said.

Dangote Cameroun
Announcing that the Cameroun plant would be set to roll out cement from August 1, 2014, Baba noted: "What we have here is a cement grinding plant with an initial capacity of one million tonnes  and this capacity will grow to 1.5 million tonnes after two years.  We are starting with one million tonnes and then we will ramp up to 1.5 million tonnes."

He said although the Dangote Cement in Cameroun is currently importing clinker and gypsum and other raw materials to produce, "it is a sacred policy in Dangote cement worldwide to produce the higher 42.5 grade of cement because we take the health  and safety of our people very seriously."

"We can’t rule out the fact that most of the builders and contractors in the rural areas  lack engineers to monitor what they do; however, if you have a good product for them,  no matter  how they manage the resources, they will be able to come up with standard  construction that will last and won’t endanger people’s lives."

However for Dangote cement which was first registered in Cameroun in 2008, it has taken a lot of intense work and planning to move the plant from the realms ideas to actual production of the essential product.

After the companies registration in 2008, it did not work on the project did not begin in earnest until September 2011, when an investment agreement was signed with the government of Cameroun.

In October 2011, Dangote signed a convention with the Ports Authority of Cameroun to obtain the site where the plant is now located. The site was owned by the ports authority and the convention transfered ownership of the location which is within the Douala ports to the cement giant.

Then between November and December 2011, construction activities started with soil investigation of the area with actual construction beginning in September 2012. 

Ecological setback
Unknown to Dangote, about 30 years ago, the area in which it has now situated its plant was all water which was reclaimed.

Baba said: "We never knew this but of course during our soil investigation we got to know.  Based on this, we did a complete re-engineering of our foundation. Because of that every single thing you are seeing here is standing on piles. Altogether we sank about 8,500 piles on this site.Without the piles, there is no way this place can support a structure of this nature."

Contending with host communities
After the major ecological hurdle was overcome, Dangote carried out the Environmental Impact Assessment in 2012 and secured its mines in the same.

Chinese construction company Sinoma was then engaged to start the construction of the plant in 2012, but unfortunately, Sinoma could not mobilise to site due to severe  communal confrontation.

"We had a problem with the community because there is only one cement industry they are used to and they felt that if another cement company is coming into their space it was going to  worsen environmental pollution in the area. So it took us a lot of time to convince everyone that the technology we are introducing is different and new.

"We tried to show them that as far as our plant is concerned, our number one priority is pollution control. We even took some of them to our plants in Nigeria to get them familiarised with our operations. They saw it and were convinced and we now have peace and construction started in earnest around September 2012.

The Cameroun plant
The plant is a grinding unit and also has a jetty to support this operation, Which makes its location at the sea port very strategic.
A jetty of 200 meters length is under construction for the company's clinker and gypsum ship to berth.

"Right from the ship side, we are installing some of the best equipment for dust control and for the first time, we are installing the latest technology equipment for the discharge of  all raw materials at the port.  

"It is the first in Africa and we are going to transport them from the conveyor into our plant silo here. It has a capacity of 30,000 tonnes.  It has additive storage of 72,000 tonnes and vertical roller mills.   We are confident that this is the most efficient grinding mill in the whole world in terms of pollution control.

"We have two cement silos each with a capacity of 7,000 tonnes  so altogether we can store a total of 14,000 tonnes of cement.  We have six automatic loading machine.  That means all the trucks will be loaded automatically.  We can also load cement silo trucks of a big bag of two tonnes each.  

Of course we are taking power from the power grid,  being a grinding plant we believe the national grid can support our operation. As I stated earler, we have three mines located at various areas of Cameroon,  and we have secured all the necessary permission and authorisation to commence mining," Baba explained.

The major contractors on the project was Sinoma of China, they acted as the Engneering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractors.  A substation to support the plant's operation is being built and the substation is expected to be the hub of the national grid of Cameroun. The substation is the first of its type in Cameroun . The jetty is being designed by a local contractor.

The jetty will however not prevent production of cement from taking off.  For the first six to nine months, the clinker for production would be sent to the factory from outside cameroun, so that construction can begin while the jetty is still under construction.  All the equipment from belt conveyors to buck conveyor were procured from the best manufacturers in the world.

The overall status assessment of the project shows that design and engineering is almost 99.9 percent completed;  procurement of materials is 96 percent completed;  actual construction is 70 percent completed, while the balanced 30 percent is made up of roads and drainages.

Mechanical and electrical installation is almost completed and the overall project is 84 percent completed. Already test run of the equipment is in progress and the first shipment of  clinker will come in by the end of July and by August other raw materials will arrive and production will be full swing at the plant. 

The cooperation of the people and government of Cameroun is said to have been key to the successful implementation of the project of setting up the plant and without their help it would have been virtually impossible to carry through.

"They have shown solid  support for this project and we are grateful to them and as I have said earlier, we are going to produce 42.5 grade of cement in this plant that will employ around 300 people and we are not going to go lower than that standard. Also, our price will be very competitive," Baba noted

Dangote Cement and Nigerian Companies' Quest for Continental Presence