The President, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has said that Nigeria will be the highest exporter of cement by the year 2018. Dangote stated this while receiving The Guardian Man of The Year 2015 award in Lagos.
“The only way we can help the continent is to be self-sufficient and also export. What we have been able to achieve is that in the next two years, Nigeria will be the highest exporter of cement,” he stated.
He said the group had looked at critical areas where the country was not doing very well in terms of local production and decided to invest in those areas.
According to him, the company has also invested in a refinery with a production capacity of 650, 0000 barrels per day, adding that its petrochemical plant, which has a production capacity of 1.2 million metric tonnes, was 10 times that of Eleme petrochemicals, which has 120,000MT production capacity.
“We will be the largest producer of petrochemicals in Africa,” he stated.
In the area of power, Dangote noted that the only solution to the situation in the country was to have enough gas and sort out the distribution.
He added that the company’s two subsea gas pipelines contained three billion stock of gas just a little below the LNG, which is 3.1 billion.
He said the award was the most cherished among all the honours he had received both locally and internationally, including being Forbes’ richest man in Africa.
“The reason why the Guardian award is the most important is because it is rare for people to be appreciated at home,” Dangote added.
Speaking about the choice of Dangote for the award, the Chairman/Publisher of Guardian Newspapers Limited, Lady Maiden Ibru, said the industrialist stood shoulders above others in his bold efforts to become the builder of a modern Africa.