The Dangote Group said on Tuesday that its investments on new projects on agriculture, sugar, oil refinery and fertilisers would create additional 250,000 employment opportunities for Nigerians when completed.
The projects, sited in some states, including Jigawa, Taraba, Kano and Kogi, according to the group, will encourage self-sufficiency in food production and reduce capital flight from the country.
Executive Director (Communications) of the Group, Alhaji Ahmed Mansur, told newsmen in Abuja that the company’s cement production was expected to grow from its current 40 million tonnnes to between 75 million and 80 million tonnes in 2020.
He said it was projected that about 40 million tonnes of the product would be produced by the company in Nigeria.
Mansur commended the Federal Government’s efforts at diversifying the economy, especially through agriculture and solid mineral, adding that the policy was a sustainable and inclusive direction for economic growth.
On the conglomerate’s Backward Integration Sugar Project, he said that the existing 6,000 hectares of sugarcane plantation would be expanded to cover 12,000 hectares to boost local sugar production.
“We are focusing on increasing investment in agriculture; we have the largest transport fleet and we are developing new sugar plantations in Sokoto, Taraba, Niger and Kwara to reduce imports.’’
The Dangote Group is a Nigerian multinational industrial conglomerate.
It is the largest conglomerate in West Africa and one of the largest on the African continent.
It generated revenue in excess of three billion dollars in 2015.
The group is one of the leading diversified business conglomerates in Africa, and employs more than 26,000 people.
Mansur also said the Group’s 650,000 barrels per day capacity refinery currently under construction in Lagos would come on stream by the end of 2018.
He said this would ultimately end fuel importation.
He said the refinery’s daily production capacity would be 150 per cent of the current total demand of petroleum products in the country, saying that the excess would be exported to other countries.
Mansur said a 1.3 million metric tonnes per annum petrochemical plant was also under construction at the refinery site in Lekki area of Lagos .
In addition, he said that a fertilser company with capacity to produce 2.8 million metric tonnes of assorted fertilisers was also being added to help the country to achieve food security.
Mansur disclosed that the company had also diversified into gas business as it had started constructing a gas pipeline from the South East to Lagos.
He said that the gas plant, when completed, would have the capacity to produce three million standard cubic metres of gas per annum.
The executive director said the project would help the country to record appreciable improvement in power and manufacturing sectors.
According to him, the company’s huge investment in the oil and gas sector will impact positively in the economy, especially in the areas of employment and preservation of foreign exchange.
