Alhaji Aliko Dangote has stated that epileptic power supply being witnessed nationwide was adversely affecting business.
He stated this while conducting distributors of the Dangote brand of cement on a facility tour of the Ibeshe plant, on Friday.
During the tour of the facility, Africa’s richest businessman noted that the cement factory spent a whooping sum of between N230 million and N250 million daily on diesel to ensure smooth operation.
The President of Dangote Group of Companies expressed concern over the non-availability of sufficient gas to run the 12 million tonnes capacity cement plant and urged the Federal Government to find a lasting solution to the perennial problem of inadequate power supply.
He said: “Our appeal to the Federal Government is to make sure that there is enough gas so that we can continue to generate our own power. If you look at it in the last six months, we have been using diesel to produce power.
“Our generators are made in such a way that if there is no gas, we have to use diesel and between diesel and low fuel oil, we are spending between N230 million and N250 million per day.
So, that has really eaten up our own profit when compared to that of last year.
“I think by now, we have fully stabilised a bit; we are using coal, but by next year, we will fully be on coal so that we don’t go through this mess anymore.”
Dangote told the distributors, drawn across the country, that the cement plant and other subsidiaries of his company are working towards attaining international standards.
He said additional production lines in the Ibeshe plant were meant to expand production capacity and provide employment opportunities for Nigerians.
“Since we have doubled our production capacity, this will create a lot of jobs directly and indirectly. It is our desire to employ more, about 60 per cent of the current figure,” he added.
Dangote who said his plants had already made Nigerians self-sufficient in cement production, assured stakeholders that the companies would work harder to meet increasing demands.
He also told the distributors that 96 per cent of the raw materials for the cement were sourced from the Ibeshe area while “the only thing we import is gypsum, which is just four per cent.”
Dangote explained that the reason for conducting the distributors round the plant was not only to appreciate them but also to demonstrate the extent of work on the company’s expansion.