The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has revealed that Dangote Cement maintained 54,000 jobs in four African countries- Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal and South Africa, despite the challenging economic situation in 2019.
He also disclosed that more jobs would be created as the company intensified export of clinker to neighbouring countries. Dangote announced this at the company’s 11th annual general meeting in Lagos State.
The entrepreneur was cited in a statement as saying, “According to our 2019 socio-economic impact assessment study specifically on our operations in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal and South Africa, we sustained 54,005 jobs (direct, indirect, induced) in these four markets in the year under review.”
He informed shareholders that 2019 was a strong year, given the “tough” business environment across most of its operating geographies, saying the group recorded 23.7 million metric tonnes in volume and N891.7bn in revenue.
Dangote said, “We recorded a strong EBITDA margin of 44.3 per cent. As a result of this performance, the board has recommended for your approval a dividend of N16 per ordinary 50k share.”
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Speaking on the local Nigerian operations, he said, “Nigeria’s cement market grew slightly in 2019. We estimate that total market consumption was up between two to three per cent on the 20.7MT estimated in 2018.”
Dangote explained that the modest performance of Dangote Cement was in spite of the negative impact disruptions, on account of the 2019 election cycle, heavy rains and the loss in land export volumes due to the border closure, on the market.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, expressed excitement over the progress made at the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical plant.
