Nigeria’s second-largest cement maker eyes new mega plant

Nigeria’s second-largest cement maker eyes new mega plant

Nigeria’s BUA Cement plans to set up a mega plant in the Northeastern Adamawa State in furtherance of the company’s business expansion program, Chairman Abdulsamad Rabiu has said.

The 3 million metric tonnes cement plant will be located in Guyuk and Lamurde local governments of the state, as preliminary findings show that the LGAs are reputed to have a good quality of limestone deposits, Rabiu said during a courtesy visit to the Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri in the Government House, Yola.

The Guyuk Cement Plant will be accompanied by a 50 megawatts power plant to supply power to the proposed cement plant and communities of Guyuk and Lamurde in addition to providing 3,000 direct and 5,000 indirect jobs, according to the Chairman.\

The planned investment in Adamawa will be BUA’s major investment in North-East Nigeria and its strategy of sourcing raw materials locally – the majority of the firm’s raw materials are found close to its plant locations across the country – keys into the state government’s effort to explore local content. 

BUA is the country’s second-largest cement maker by volume – after Dangote Cement – with a combined installed capacity of 8 million metric tonnes per annum from its operations in Okpella, Edo State and Kalambaina in Sokoto State.

It has plans to increase existing capacity to 11 mmtpa, through the commissioning of a new 3 mmtpa plant in Sokoto, expected to be operational by the first half of 2021, while the planned Guyuk Cement Plant will bring the company’s total capacity to 14 million metric tonnes yearly.

BUA Cement Plc is a member of the BUA Group, a diversified conglomerate founded in 1988 with a portfolio comprising a wide range of businesses including sugar refinery, real estate, oil mills as well as ports and terminal.

The cement company’s latest unaudited financial results, for the first quarter ended March 31, shows a 25.1 percent increase in revenue to ₦54 billion, while profit before tax grew by 15.7 percent to ₦20.1 billion and profit after tax by 26.2 percent to ₦19.8 billion.

BUA Cement became a publicly-listed company in January following the conclusion of the merger of two of BUA’s cement entities – the Cement Company of Northern Nigeria and the Obu Cement company. It has a market capitalization of ₦1.18 trillion ($3.3 billion), making it the third most capitalized company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.