In Ghana: Dangote Cement to recruit 5,000 workers

As part of the initiative to widen access and improve the availability of cement in all parts of the country, Dangote Cement Ghana has procured 1,000 brand-new-trucks to facilitate distribution of the product into all parts of Ghana.

With these, the Company has commenced the process of recruitment of drivers, truck driver assistants and loaders.

These trucks, which came in three different vessels, arrived at the shores of Tema Port between July 4 and 8, 2016, according to the Company’s Media Relations Manager, Etornam Komla.

“We’ve started the recruitment exercise and by the end of July, all of the drivers will be on board,” Komla said.

The recruitment exercise, according to Komla, is part of the company’s objective of contributing to Ghana’s economic growth through job creation and honouring tax obligations, adding: “These are components of the Company’s mission in Ghana which is to stimulate its economy.”

He said the company has also invested over $100 million in the construction of a new plant in Takoradi in the Western Region.

The plant, which will be a state of the art modern Cement Grinding Plant, will have the capacity to produce about 1.5 million tonnes of cement per annum.

Komla said: “This project when completed will further cement the presence of Dangote Cement business in Ghana and is a further proof of our commitment to the Infrastructural development of the country and will also enable us to meet the growing demands across other countries in West Africa.”

Though, Cement manufacturing has taken the centre stage of the businesses of Aliko Dangote, the owner of the Dangote Cement Ghana, has recently made a foray into oil and gas, investing in key industries such as Petrochemical, Refinery and Fertilizer within Nigeria.

The Petro Chemical complex where these plants are being built occupies a land complex in excess of 2,100 hectares.

These projects will cost in excess of $12 billion.

The Oil Refinery has a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day and over 3,000,000 Ammonia and Urea plants.

Dangote told Reuters that these businesses will be ready between 2018 and 2019.

In addition, there is a plan to build a 550KM Gas Pipeline across Nigeria and into West Africa.

Dangote Cement is Africa’s leading cement producer with 44 million tonnes per annum of capacity operational at the end of 2015 in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.

Headquartered in Lagos, the Group is managed by an executive team led by the Group Chief Executive Officer, who reports to the Chairman and the Board of Directors.

Dangote Cement has three regions: Nigeria, West and Central Africa and South and East Africa, each with its own CEO and CFO reporting to the Group CEO and Group CFO respectively.

The Company that became Dangote Cement was founded at a time when Nigeria was almost entirely dependent on imports.

Indeed, importation of cement was the company’s main business for many years until the Federal Government launched it's industrial policy of Backward Integration in 2002.

This bold initiative was designed to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on imports by encouraging the industry to build enough capacity to serve Nigeria’s needs, not just in that decade but long into the future.

Probably Africa’s most attractive market for cement, Nigeria has substantial limestone and energy resources, a large and increasingly prosperous population, strong GDP growth and a pressing need to improve infrastructure and housing on a massive scale.

The company invested billions of dollars building new capacity that has singlehandedly helped Nigeria to become self-sufficient in cement.

In the process, it has created thousands of jobs across the country in factories, logistics, sales and support.

At 13.25Mta, its Obajana Cement Plant in Kogi State, Nigeria is the largest in Africa and one of the largest and most profitable cement factories in the world.

Employing thousands of people, directly and indirectly, it was opened in 2008 as a 5Mta plant and has twice been extended in size.

Although Obajana is primarily gas-fuelled, the company recently commissioned coal facilities to fuel its kilns as well, being significantly cheaper as a backup fuel than the low pour fuel oil it had originally used.

Its Ibese Cement Plant in Ogun State has four gas-fired cement lines with a combined capacity of 12Mta.

Its first two lines were inaugurated in February 2012 and the second pair of lines came onstream in late 2014.

Like Obajana, Ibese is abandoning the use of LPFO in favour of coal.

The Gboko Cement Plant in Benue State has 4Mta of capacity.