Self sufficiency in cement production
The Federal
Government on Thursday reiterated its commitment to work towards the
country becoming self sufficient in cement production by 2013.
The Minister of
Commerce and Industry, Jubril Martin-Kuye, made the pledge at his 2010
ministerial news conference tagged, ‘2010 Ministerial Score Card’.
He said the country had no business still importing cement with its abundant natural human resources for cement production.
Mr. Martin-Kuye described cement as a resource-based product, where Nigeria had one of the greatest competitive advantages.
“We have no product that can beat cement when it comes to resources with the abundance of limestone.
Nigeria is
centrally located in the continent, and can export cement to the
western, eastern, and southern African countries. We, therefore, have
no reason to import dust from other countries,” he said.
The minister said
government’s sustained incentive to investors in the sector had
witnessed increased local production of cement, which stood at 8.3
million metric tonnes in 2009.
“It is expected
that when the new cement plants at Ibeshe (Dangote), Lakatabu
(Lafarge), and Ava Cement, Edo State, as well as the rehabilitation and
expansion programmes at the Ewekoro, Gboko, Obajana, are completed, the
local capacity for cement would increase tremendously,” he said.
On sugar production, Martin-Kuye said government also planned to attain 70 percent self sufficiency of local production by 2020.
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