The ongoing expansion of Dangote Cement, for which the company has made massive investments in its operations and new projects, is expected by stakeholders to lead to greater returns.
How the company’s shareholders and the economy stand to benefit from the expansion is going to be one of the talking points at its yearly meeting on Wednesday (today) as well as the approval of its financial results for 2014.
Dangote Cement is executing an expansion in 16 African countries outside Nigeria and the management believes that the investors will have a lot to be thankful for as a result of the project.
The importance of the expansion is more significant now as returns from the African projects are expected to start reflecting on the company’s account from the 2015 financial year.
The company’s Board of Directors had recommended that a dividend payout of N6 per share be paid to the shareholders for the 2014 financial year, a recommendation which is subject to approval at the meeting as well.
If approved, the dividend payout will translate to a yield of 3.9 per cent and payout ratio of 63.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, the company said its new plants in Senegal and Cameroun had commenced operations with its Cement plants in Ethiopia and Zambia expected to start production next month.
According to it, the new Senegalese plant, located in Pout District, about 75 kilometers from Dakar, the country’s capital, is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs, with a total production capacity of 1.5 million tons annually.
With the new plant, the company hopes to improve the country’s cement production capacity with an additional 1.5million tons, while serving an export market demand of two million tons along the Mali axis.
The Country Head, Dangote Industries, Senegal, LukHaelterman, had disclosed that the group had invested about $300m in the cement plant, adding that actual production and sales started on January 10, 2015.
Also commenting on the expansion drive, the Group Executive Director in the company, Mr. Devakumar Edwin, had said, “I am proud to report that we commissioned nine million tons of new capacity at our Obajana and Ibese plants and this puts them amongst the biggest cement plants in the world.
“Outside Nigeria, we opened up new factories in South Africa and Senegal in 2014 and our grinding plant in Cameroon has just become operational. We have started commissioning our plants in Zambia and Ethiopia and are on track to open more factories in Africa in the coming years.”
Source : Punch