SON gives MANCAP to Dangote Cement products

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) says products of Dangote Cement Company have successfully passed through its Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP).
Its Director-General, Mr Ostia Aboloma, announced this during a partnership facility tour of the Dangote Cement plant at Obajana, Kogi State.
Aboloma, who was represented during the tour by the organisation’s Director of Standards Development, Mrs Chinyere Egwuonwu, said that the new certification was an attestation to Dangote Cement’s quality products.
“It is also a testimony of the company’s capacity to conduct in-process and in-house tests on its raw materials and finished products in conformity with relevant national standards,” a statement signed by Mr Tony Chiejina, Head, Corporate Communication, Dangote Group, said.
“ Through our conformity assessment activities, we have always visited your plants on routine quarterly factory inspections to ensure compliance of your products to relevant national standards.
“ The outcome of these activities is the certification of your products to the Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme,” the statement said further.
The SON chief said that the revised standard for cement production in Nigeria, NIS 444-1:2018, had been approved by the Standard Council of Nigeria and now ready for implementation.
He promised SON’s continuous collaboration with Dangote Cement, other private sector operators and stakeholders to ensure availability of the relevant standards for both raw materials and finished products.
Speaking during the facility tour, the Managing Director of Dangote Cement Plc, Mr Joseph Makoju, said that the company had always taken the issue of standard seriously in its production activities.
“ Dangote Cement Plc does not limit itself to the set standards, but usually exceeds standard both in quality of its products and environmental friendliness of its plants operations,” Makoju said.
He advised others in the sector to emulate the  company by adhering to standards so that products from Nigeria could compete favourably with foreign ones.
The managing director said that that the organisation had deliberately invested heavily in machines, equipment and human capital development as so as to ensure that its products quality standard is second to none.
According to him, the decision of Dangote Cement Plc to take lead role in the backward integration policy of the Federal Government has paid off as Nigeria has now become self-sufficient in cement production.
He advocated a replication of the backward integration policy in other sectors of the nation’s economy to reduce over reliance on oil and create jobs for the people.
In his remark, the Obajana Plant Director, Mr. Veeraraghavan Sirinivasan, lauded the management of SON for the facility tour to the cement plant which he described as the largest in Africa.