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FG’s Favourable Conditions Boost BUA Cement Production By 300% – Minister

Published

3 years ago

May 26, 2022

Joel Ajayi
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said BUA Cement’s massive increase in production, especially since 2015, was made possible by the conducive business environment provided by the Federal Government.

The Minister, who stated this during a media tour of BUA Cement’s Sokoto Plant on Wednesday, listed the favorable conditions as including the granting of Pioneer Status which enables BUA Cement to enjoy tax holiday; the ban on importation of cement; backward integration policy and the divestment of government shares from cement companies.

”Thanks to these conditions, BUA Cement has recorded more than a 300 percent increase in production between 2015 and now. That’s from 3.5 million tonnes per annum in 2015 to 11 million tonnes per annum now,” he said

Alhaji Mohammed said the Sokoto Plant has created 10,000 direct and indirect jobs and is also earning foreign exchange for the country by exporting its products to Niger, which is just 100 kilometers from the location of the plant, as well as Burkina Faso, especially during the raining season when construction work is at its lowest point.

He commended the Chairman of BUA Cement, Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu (and his entire team), for his undying belief in Nigeria, saying: ”There is no better indication of BUA’s support for the government’s economic diversification and job creation agenda than the company’s massive investments in Nigeria.”

The Minister said that in the last five years, BUA has completed four new cement plants of similar capacity in different parts of the country and is set to complete two more plants soon. It is expected that total production for BUA Cement will amount to 17 million tonnes per annum by 2023.

Alhaji Mohammed, who was taken on a guided tour of the Sokoto Plant by the Managing Director of BUA Cement, Engineer Yusuf Binji, said the 3 million tonnes per annum line IV of the Sokoto Plant, which was commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari in January this year, has taken the combined installed capacity of the factory’s Lines 2,3 and 4 to 5 million tonnes per annum.

The Minister described the Sokoto Plant as one of the most modern cement plants anywhere, with gas analyzers used in regulating carbo emissions released into the atmosphere; air purifying mechanisms set up to enhance the quality of air released from the cement manufacturing process, and filters that are capable of capturing 99.9% of dust in order to make the environment healthy and conducive for the workers and customers alike.

He said the Sokoto Plant is the first cement plant in Nigeria to use Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to generate power, thereby replacing coal in its kiln, adding that the plant generates 50MW of electricity to power its production machinery.

”This has made the plant environmentally friendly to also curb climate change. I am sure when the AKK gas pipeline project is completed, it will drastically reduce the time and cost of transporting gas, which is currently being trucked from Port Harcourt to the plant. At least 20 trucks of LNG are brought here daily from Port Harcourt. Imagine the costs and the logistic challenges involved in this,” Alhaji Mohammed said.

The Minister, who was accompanied by about 30 journalists, said the tour of the BUA Cement’s Sokoto Plant is his fifth media tour of public and private sector projects across the country in the past two months, with others being the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals as well as the Dangote Fertilizer in Lagos; the Lekki Deep Sea Port in Lagos and the Duchess Hospital, also in Lagos.

In his presentation, the Managing Director of the company, Engineer Binji, said the Sokoto plant is operating at over 90 per cent of its installed capacity and loading between 250 and 270 trucks per day. The plant has a total of 700 trucks for cement distribution.

He said BUA Cement, which is listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of N2.5 trillion, is the fourth largest company on the NSE; the second largest cement producer in Nigeria with 25 percent of the market, and the largest cement producer in the country’s North West, South South, and South East.

Engineer Binji said BUA Cement has also invested heavily in Corporate Social Responsibility, noting that the company is involved in the provision of health services, scholarship for students, provision of housing, roads, electricity, etc.

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Business

Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Published

1 week ago

March 6, 2025

The Gleamer

Ismaila Ahmad Abdullahi Ph.D

The public hearings conducted recently by the two Chambers of the National Assembly have elicited positive responses from a broad spectrum of Nigerians, cutting across regional interest groups, government agencies, civil society groups, concerned individuals, the academia, and Labour Unions, among diverse others. Contrary to a few dissensions hitherto expressed in the media, almost all the stakeholders who spoke during the week-long sessions were unanimous in their declaration that the hallowed Chambers should pass the tax reform bills after a clean-up of the grey areas.

The public hearings were auspicious for all Nigerians desirous of economic growth and fiscal responsibility. They were also a watershed moment for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which had been upbeat about the tax reforms. Indeed, the public hearings had rekindled hope in the tenets of democracy that guarantee freedom of expression and equitable space for cross-fertilisation of ideas. Without gainsaying the fact, the tax reform bills have been unarguably about the most thought-provoking issues in Nigeria today, drawing variegated perspectives and commentaries from even unlikely quarters such as the faith-based leaders, student bodies, and trade unions, which speaks much about the importance of the bills.

In the build-up to the public hearings, not many people believed that the bills would make it to the second reading, much less the public hearings. Even the Northern stakeholders who seemed unlikely to support the passage of the bills have softened their stance and have given valuable suggestions that would enrich the substance of the bills. The Arewa Consultative Forum came to the public hearings well-prepared with a printed booklet that addressed their concerns. It concluded with an advisory that the bills should be “Well planned, properly communicated, strategically implemented and ample dialogue and political consensus allowed for the reforms to be accepted.”

The concerns of ACF ranged from the composition of the proposed Nigeria Revenue Service Board as contained in Part 111, Section 7 of the bill, the unlimited Presidential power to exempt/wave tax payment as proposed in Section 75(1) of the bill, the family income or inheritance tax as contained in Part 1, Section 4(3) of the bill, to the issues around development levy and VAT. On the development levy, the ACF stated that unless the Federal Government is considering budgetary funding for TETFUND, NASENI and NITDA, it does not see the “wisdom behind the plan to replace (them) with NELFUND”.

The position of the North was equally reinforced by the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria, Northern Elders Forum, Kano State Government, Professor Auwalu Yadudu, and the FCT Imams. Like the ACF, these stakeholders lent their respective voices to the Section on the Inheritance Tax in Part 1 of the bill and the use of the term ‘ecclesiastical’, which, in their views, undermines certain religious rights and beliefs. The Kano State Government, represented by Mahmud Sagagi, affirmed that “we support tax modernisation” but cautioned that “we must ensure that this process does not come at the expense of states’ constitutional rights and economic stability”. Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional law professor, drew attention to the use of the ‘supremacy clause’ and cautioned that the repeated use of “notwithstanding” in the bills would undermine the supremacy of the Nigerian constitution if passed as such.

Other stakeholders that made contributions at the sessions included the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, and a host of others. While most of their concerns bordered on technical issues requiring fine-tuning, they were unanimous in their support for the bills. They aligned with the position of the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, Ph.D. and the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, which is that the extant tax laws and fiscal regulations are obsolete necessitating reforms aimed at creating a fair and equitable tax and fiscal space to grow Nigeria’s economy.

In one of the sessions, Dr Zaach Adedeji expounded on the criss-cross of trade activities in the Free Trade Zone whereby companies misuse tax waivers as exporters to sell their goods or services in the Customs Area at an amount usually less than the price the operators in the Customs Area who pay VAT and other taxes sell theirs thereby disrupting business transactions. This way, the operators in the Free Trade Zone shortchange the government in paying their due taxes by circumventing extant regulations, which are inimical to the economy’s growth.

Overall, the presentations were forthright, foresighted, and helpful in elucidating the issues contained in the bills. According to the statistics read out at the end of the hearings at the Senate, 75 stakeholders were invited, 65 made submissions, and 61 made presentations. At the House of Representatives 53 stakeholders made presentations. By all means, this is a fair representation. Given the presentations, it is evident that the National Assembly has gathered enough materials to guide its deliberations on the bills. As we look forward to the passage of the bills, we commend the leadership of the National Assembly for their unwavering commitment to making the bills see the light of the day.

Abdullahi is the Director of the Communications and Liaison Department, FIRS.

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