Nigeria saves N270 billion from enhanced local cement production

THE country may have saved about N270 billion on the importation of cement within the last three years, going by the assessment of the Director- General, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr. Joseph Odumodu.Odumodu gave the assessment yesterday during a facility tour of Dangote's Ibeshe cement plant in Ogun State.He pointed out that last year, the country spent about N30 billion on importation of cement, compared to N300 billion expended in the last three years.Odumodu said the development is in line with the Federal Government's import substitution policy and, transformation agenda, disclosing that no licence has been issued so far for the importation of cement.'We are happy that the Federal Government's policy is working, most especially in the cement sector. This will also save the country foreign exchange. In five years to come, we hope to see more Nigerians involved in this sector. This is the reason why SON is doing everything to support the sector.Today, we are aware that Nigeria can actually meet the total local demand,' Odumodu said.Odumodu commended Dangote Cement Company for supporting the Federal Government's industrialisation policy.He announced plans to put in place new quality assurance measures aimed at ensuring compliance with global standards in building materials manufacturing.According to him, SON will begin the process with visits to the three main cement productionsites in the country, following which a stakeholders' forum will be held.He said the forum would be used as platform for the development of a new framework for quality assurance, along the cement manufacturing, sales and value chain.The new framework, according to him, will soon be developed and adopted by the agency and stakeholders to ensure that policy issues among stakeholders in the cement value chain were addressed.'The next phase is to define a new framework to make sure that policy concerns among stakeholders are addressed with the quality of products produced and used assured,' Odumodu added.
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