The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is set to partner with Nigeria’s Dangote group in order to bolster intra-African trade. A statement by Afreximbank in Lagos mentioned that the bank’s President, Benedict Oramah gave his word on this development while on a visit to Aliko Dangote, the President of Dangote Group.
Oramah stated that in order to prompt economic development and integration, his plan was to deepen the focus on developing and promoting trading activities among African countries. As such, his bank will ensure that this collaboration with Africa’s largest conglomerate yields positive results in the field of intra-African trade.
Earlier, Dangote had told Oramah that his group’s present initiatives included the construction of a 650,000-oil-barrel capacity refinery in Nigeria and the expansion of a cement plant in Ethiopia and cross-border trade in cement.With a radical expansion across the continent, the Dangote Group seems to be succeeding in its objective to make African nations less import-dependent by promoting local production.
A report filed at the Nigerian Stock Exchange last month, indicated a high turnover and profit margin for Dangote Cement Plc for its third quarter. The Pan-African cement giant rose to N365.45 billion, a 17.8 per cent increase from last year’s N310.21 billion. Pretax profit for the period also increased to N166.91 billion from N154.05 billion a year ago.
The unaudited results of the past nine months, show that the group’s earnings per share rose by 18.6 percent, that is, from N8.26 Naira to N9.80. This year, the cement group recorded an operating profit of N173.5 billion, a 6.8 percent increase from the N162.5 billion generated last year.
Dangote cement has built and commissioned cement plants in Ghana, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Nigeria, Zambia, and recently Tanzania, with that of South Africa and Senegal set to be commissioned at the end of the year. The company is set to further launch cement plants across Africa to reach production capacity of 62 million Tonnes a year within the next three years.
