Dangote, BUA and Lafarge: Titans of the cement industry in Nigeria

May 15, 2023|Yomi Ajayi

Key questions this article answers:

Due to increasing demand, Nigeria’s cement industry has grown strongly in recent years. What does the future hold for the sector?
Despite the cement sector’s resilience, it has not been immune to domestic headwinds. Why is the sector important, and what are some of its challenges?

Cement manufacturing has played a vital role in Nigeria’s growth and development as rapid urbanisation and increased productivity have led to a surge in cement production.

However, following a resilient financial performance in 2022 by Nigeria’s top cement producers—Dangote Cement Plc, BUA Cement, and Lafarge Africa Plc, domestic headwinds in the first quarter of 2023 soon reversed those fortunes.

These three industrial goods companies had raked in a whooping ₦2.35 trillion in revenues (35% of the FG’s ₦6.7 trillion 2022 capex budget) in 2022, 21.6% higher than the ₦1.93 trillion posted a year before.

Despite high inflation, a severe dollar shortage and shrinking consumer wallets, these companies also recorded a 6.2% year-on-year (y/y) increase in their collective profits after tax to ₦536 billion compared to ₦505.5 billion recorded in 2021.

The primary reason for this positive performance was price increases in cement products across the key players, which were enough to offset the impact of a drop in volume sales.

Even with further price increases