•Shifts production of refined petroleum products to 2022
•Expects products from fertiliser plant this month
By Peter Uzoho
The Executive Director, Capital Projects and Portfolio Management, Dangote Group, Mr. Devakumar Edwin, has said that Nigeria has a good cement policy that does not favour only a few companies as being speculated.
He added that Dangote Refinery has shifted production of refined petroleum products from 2020 to early 2022 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He, however, stated that the production of fertilisers from the company’s plant would begin this year.
Edwin, while fielding questions on ARISE NEWS Channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers, faulted the perception among some competitors in the cement sector that the national cement policy favours only a few players.
He spoke against the backdrop of the call by the Chairman and Founder of the BUA Group, Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu, for the liberalisation of Nigeria’s cement policy to boost production and subsequently crash the price of the commodity.
Rabiu had told reporters in Lagos on Monday that the price of cement, which presently sells for about N4,000 per bag, remains high in Nigeria because the few producers are not able to meet the country’s huge demand due to low production capacity.
However, Edwin said the policy was open, transparent and did not favour any particular interest.
He said: “Few points were raised; one is about the policy – that the policy favours certain people. All policies encourage everybody, including us.
“So, this is a simple government policy and I’m sure you must have already done the investigation based on yesterday’s report which came in and you will be able to see that the policy is a very open policy and it doesn’t specify or favour any individual or any company, either a Nigerian or a foreign company.
“Before we started our investment in cement, the country’s production was about seven million tonnes. Now, when you talk about available estimates, including imports, the country’s production itself was about two-and-a-half million tonnes.
“And you see now that within this period, the local capacity and projection itself has grown seven-fold within this 15 years span and if you look at the entire Africa country by country, you cannot find any single country where they have this much level of growth within this period, that is number one. That shows that the policy has encouraged investment.”
He insisted that the policy does not favour only one company, pointing out, however, that although Dangote had grown phenomenally, other companies had grown too.
According to him, the only company operating before Dangote entered the Nigerian cement market was a foreign-owned company, which had been there for 50 years with a small production capacity.
He said: “Now, we can see that they have also added up capacities. So, it’s a foreign company, they have also grown. Then, another company came in, which is Flour Mills of Nigeria Group, which is a Nigerian company, but its principal shareholders are foreigners. But they also came in, invested but of course, they dis-invested and sold the brand to Lafarge. If you go through the policy, it is very transparent, very open.”
He added that the policy encourages anyone to invest and there is no single line in that policy that favours any company.
“Having seen the controversy yesterday, I’m sure you will agree with me. Whether you are a Nigerian investor, whether you are an African investor or foreign investor, the only benefit which is available to any investor today is the pioneer status tax facility, which is available to everyone. Apart from that, there is nothing restricting anyone from anybody,” he said.
Edwin said refined petroleum products from the company’s 650,000 per day refinery would be in the market early next year as against the last quarter of 2021 as earlier planned.
He stated that the company expected finished products from its fertiliser plant to be ready this month.
Edwin explained that the group could not meet the earlier completion and products production date due to the impact of COVID-19 on movement, as restrictions led to delays in the shipment of equipment from abroad.
He, however, said the group had gone far ahead with the construction schedule and that by the end of this year, it would have achieved mechanical completion and proceed with the inauguration by December.
Edwin said: “Well, as you rightly said, it’s a 650,000 barrels per day refinery and it is much larger than the existing capacity within Nigeria. And this is the largest single-train refinery in the world.
“We had hoped to complete at the end of last year and start the commissioning early this year, but as you know, the impact of the COVID-19 had a major impact on us.
“We, are receiving goods manufactured in the US, Europe, China and India and almost all the four countries were affected by COVID.
“So, our equipment deals got delayed and because of the movement restrictions, the shipping got delayed and the construction engineers also got restricted.
“So, now, we have gone far ahead with the construction schedule and by the end of this year, we will have mechanical completion and we start the commissioning by December this year. So, we expect the products to start coming out early next year.”
On the challenges faced by the group during the construction of the refinery and the fertiliser plant, Edwin said there were no major challenges apart from the COVID-19-induced movement restrictions that hampered movement of equipment and the arrival of foreign engineers in the country.
He said the group had already foreseen the challenges it would encounter in the process and was prepared for them.
On the state of the fertiliser plant, he said the facility is ready and that the finished products from it would be in the market this month.
