Aliko Dangote, president of the Dangote Industries Limited
(DIL), says the company will soon start exporting coal out of Nigeria.
Speaking on Monday during a courtesy call to the Nigerian
Ports Authority (NPA) headquarters in Lagos, Dangote said DIL is also targeting
a $7 million daily revenue from the sale of fertiliser in the next two years.
The billionaire said the company will soon “massively
expand” its export operations.
“For some of you who have been to our Cement factory in
Itori, we’re already exporting cement out of Nigeria. We have a whole factory
of six million tons for cement export,” he said.
“In the next couple of weeks, we will start exporting coal
out of Nigeria. Our fertiliser export will be almost like eight cargoes. The refinery
operations will not export less than 25 million tons of various products.
“We will also be exporting about 600,000 to 700,000 metric
tons of polypropylene. So when you are talking about export, we are going to be
very big.”
Dangote said the DIL plans to export about 16,000 tons of
fertiliser within the next two years.
“When you talk about 16,000 tons of fertiliser, it’s
actually about $6.5 million to $7 million revenue that will be coming into the
country on a daily basis,” the philanthropist said.
“With our export programme, our company will be the major
supplier of foreign exchange earnings in Nigeria.
“So the operations of Nigerian ports will definitely double
in the next one or two years.”
Dangote thanked the NPA for “doing a great job” and said the
DIL is the authority’s “biggest or largest customer.”
“I think this kind of interaction between us and them is
very important for the growth of the industry. So, we discussed quite a lot of
issues,” he said.
“We also discussed issues of how to deepen the Marine and
Blue Economy of the nation. And we have agreed to actually work together for
the benefit of Nigeria.”
Dangote said the size of his group’s operations in Lekki
alone will be “almost 240 ships of crude, with each ship carrying one million
crude each”, adding that products “will amount to over 600 ships in a year”.
Dangote said DIL’s fertiliser operations will also involve
loading nearly eight ships.
“This is an operation that has never, ever been seen in the
country. So, it’s a major challenge. But with the leadership of the NPA, we are
very comfortable that they will deliver,” he said.
“Our operations will sink if NPA doesn’t give us the
services we will be needing.
“So, the NPA will need a lot of support from the federal
government because they won’t be able to do these things with their own
physical hands. They need equipment. They need more tug boats.”
“We will also be putting in a few words in necessary
quarters to make sure that NPA gets all the necessary assistance from the
federal government”.
‘DANGOTE VISITED NPA HEADQUARTERS TO LAUD NAIRA-FOR-CRUDE
POLICY’
“He’s here to appreciate that the initiative has contributed
immensely to achieving a lot of efficiency in the area of the transactions and
operations between Nigerian government agencies,” Dantsoho said.
“This is something that started on the 1st of October last
year 2024, and so far, we have treated or operated over 57 vessels every month.
The projected volume that Dangote was looking at per annum was 600 vessels.
“If you do 56, 57 vessels into 12 months, you will see that
we are already doing bigger than what they projected. We will continue to do
our best with support from the government.”
Dantsoho said if all government agencies work
collaboratively and align their efforts, efficiencies will be realised in other
sectors of the economy.
“We’re happy that the government has approved the national
single window. We’re also happy that as of today, we are 95 percent ready for
the Port community system,” he added.
On development of new ports, he said capacity improvement or
the expansion port capacity can be done “on a brownfield, which is, you
renovate or rehabilitate existing ports; or on a greenfield, which is building
new ports”.
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