FRlDAY. APRIL lJ. 201:1
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Ibese cement plant's daily production hits 16,oooMMT
wo months after its inauguration, Dangote T Cement Pic's Iljese Plant in Ogun state bas hit its upeded cWly production capacity of ~6.000 metric tonnes. The development. which has hlrther boosted the hope qf aD end to Ct'J11~nl importation in Nigeria. ~ described by the romparN as being in line with Il}e six million metric tonncs prodUction outpllt cap~city for new plant, which was declared open on Fe~ruary 9, 2012 by Pruid£"nt Goodluck Jonathnn. The Group Chief Exe&tiVe, ! Dangote Cement, Mr. Daijeet Gha!. said on Wednesday that the ~roup 310ne was prellall'ti to exceed the 22 million metrictonrie annl181 national «:mrnt demand in the counuy before tbe August target set b... the Federal Go\'emment for the ban o( cement iml)Ollation into themuntry. The 1I~ plant commenced with a daily production o( 12 ,000 melJ;(' lonnes in Febnmry. bllt barely two mol'lth! arler, Gllai .said production bad moved up to 16,oooMMT, its full in'LaIlL-d capacity, which would lead to the achitvement of the yearly targtt of six million metric tonnes of cemf'nl 1l'e Ihese plant currtntly r!lJ1ks as the h"g~ Ceml.!nt plant In sub- h' Africa. e plantonsists of h\'O p ion ines of three mill
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!Ote Cement id th (eat ruorded thr p ant was a rknble al·hievement. derlng h,> (nct that it onl came i lin operation in F brwuy md had been Icing a full capacity
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rdinari Y. it is ·ted th I n new plant can t begi I to produce at ptimal upacity in two moj\ . Production .cli 1)', pecially for pia . takes time hefo e it beg os produce opti aU)': I e "aid. G lai ex limned that a umber of factors we respol sible for the
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remarkable achie\'ement within a sbort lime, inc:\udingOleindependent gas turbine po.....er plant for the plant, which made it not to be dependent on public electricity supply. It will be recalled that the President nnd Chief Execuli,'C Offi«:r. Oangote Group, Mr. Aliko Dangote. had said during the inauguration of the plant that 311 the group's cement plants in Nigeria had a combined capacity of 20"U-IT annually, surpassing the estimated national yearly demand
ofIBMMT. Ghai stressed that the aggressh'e expansion activities of the group's local production plants were meaht to ensure tbat there would 31ways be adequate capacity to meet
local demand and diversify into the export markeL The achievement, according to him, is the fruit of the Federal 2002 Government's backward integration polky for the cement
sedor, \~ hich was designed to transfonn Nigeria [rom net exporter to a self-sufficient nation and subsequent expor1er of the commodity. In addition, he said, the Ibese plonl would
Obasalljo lauds IITA for developing vitamin A cassava varieties A former President, r\.chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has commended the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (or successfully leading efforts in dl'\-'eloping provitamin A cassa\'B \'Bneties. Huaid during a closed-
door meeting with the Director-General, UTA. Dr. Nteran)'B Sanginga. in Abeolwta, that the elTon put in the development of the cassava varieties was commendable. The pfO\itamin A cassava varieties, which are
the r. ....t e\'e.r bio-fortiried crops in Nigeria, were de\'eloped by !ITA with fundin!!. from HarvestPlus, with the National Root Crops Resean:h Institute as a loc31 partner_ Oba!'anjo was quoted as 5a\ing in R statement
-L-R; Exet:lltiue S«retary/Ollej Exrcuhue OjJicrr. Nigerian inuestment Promotion Cauncil. Mr. Mustafa Bello; National President, NrgerirJ/l AssoCIatIon of Chambers of Commerue, industry, Mmes ond AgriC'u/rure, Dr. He~ Ajayi; and Deputy Director-General. NACClMA. Mr Milee Ojo, during the NIPCdiologue With NACC'/MA on IlIuestmenl jnamtllleS policy draft In Lagos •.. on Thursday.
Total moved 1.6 million tonnes of fuel in Rasheed Bisiriyu rpD1'AL Nigeria PIc: saKI.
1. on Thur.;day thai it mo>o-ed 1.6 miUion metric: tonnes of petroleum products in 2012. TIleManagingDirectorof Ulerompany. Mr. Francoise Boussa&ol. disclosed this at the Inauguration o( the Total Truck Driving Sehool and Inspection Centre in lbadon. 0)''0 SIDle. He said the produc15 were transported with outl!oU~ fleet or 1,.400 !nICks, awerin& an aggre",te distance of 47 million kilometres. Ill' attribUied the high mlume or fuel being moved by trucks on roads across the rountry 10 the unstable state of electricity, adding that majority or firms and households relied on petroleum produru for \'Olume
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substantially boost the supply of cement in the Nigerian market, while increased supply from it would help stabilise supply and ultimately bring do~n the market priO!! of cemenL
l>etroleuDl product consumed dluly is DlO\'ffl by road rrom the roaslal depots in the South to aU pam of the c:ounlry, as the rail and tJle nelwork or petroleum product pil>elines are also oot efficient, ~ BoU'CSBgol said. The driving Khool project. he stressed. was the company's response 10 the high rate of accidents involving tnlck dri\'Cl'S, which be noted was a threat to road lravt"1 aud bwiness operations Bo1lSSllgoi said. -rbis modest but \-el)' important projecl comes up at a. time in the histof>: of Nigeria when road ~rel)' requue critical al:EtiOn. Total Nigeria d~ it necessary h tJlisproject tocomf' up as part (Jf ~Is corporate social respontibility. ~ Accorum&j to hlln, althou&h the' oil industry has many players, Total
controls about IJ per cenl of the business. The TOIaI boss also said the need to establISh the trainin& school ""-as infonned by the challenging transportalion environment, where the roads had bee:n poor and inadequate. tie said the trainin& sessionswouldbeconducted in English l\lld the three major Nigerian languages with pictorial and extellSl,,-e practical classes. -In addition to training, medical teams are invited to carry out eye tests as \\-ell as demonstrate the effect of alcohol on vision in the class.· he said. The lraining school. be said. had !mined '-400 drivers in one year and hintedofpian!ltocommencc the second phase soon. which would admit exlernal proressional drivt".1'S. Go\'emor Abtola Ajimobi
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of 0\'0 Stale commended the Toul initiatn-e, which he 0;.11,1 would redu«: trod. accide.nts. tra"-eJ time , m,pnJ\o'e the business environme:nt as well as the nalion 's economy. 111r ltoYernor said he decidrd to personally attend tllf'~'ent in company with IllS wife, because of Ih" Importance his adrl1lnlslrnlion anached to safet\- ~lId security issues. AJ;m"bi stressed that secunh and safety were e:sst"nlial ror any business 10 thri'e and expressed the ~\1l' port of the stale governm!"nt to the Tola! programme. Th~ f"Vent wa5 attended by top officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Nig£"rian Association of Road Transport Owne~ and the Petroleum Tanker Dri\'ef'!'i ann of the Nigeria Union "f Petroleum and NatllTlIl Gas Workers,
made available to our correspondent on Wednesday, "'The varieties will offer consumers more nutritious food recipes, especially gari, a form of processed cassava that is grated and roasted into granules.In Nigeria. vitamin A deficiency afflicts about 20 per «:nt of pregnant "''Omen and 30 per cent of children under five. Most ofthose Rfflic:ted live in the ruml areas where poverty is relative:ly higher. Economically, annual losses in Gross Domestic Product as a resull of vitamin and mineral defic:iencies in the country are estimated al over Sl.sbn, according to the Minister o( Agriculhlre and Rum! De\-elopmeol, Or. Akinwunmi Adesina, during the launching of the new pro-vitamin A cassava varieties on March 17. Apart rmm offering more access to vitamin A, the statement said the improved varieties would reduce the cost of produc.ing cassava rec:ipes such as gari by eliminating the use of palm oil, which hitherto had been used by many fanners to attain lhe yellowish colour. "'This means that thegari being produc:ed from these \-arieties will have: a higher sbelf lifl!,~ Obasanjo, who is UTA's Ambassador (or Africa, said. The fonner president empbasi5ed that the:ye1lowroot cassava varieties would help in tackJing vitamin A deficienc:y and also makes products such as ",ri more' nutritious Inhis response,Sanginga said the d~lopment the VArieties was a mOJor breakthrough that ",,,wd cbangethe nutritional status of people living on cassavabased food varieties. He also noted that plans by the Nigerian government to include cassava in b~ad would get a boost with the inclusion of the more nutritious \'Brielies.
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