Everywhere you go or turn to, especially where there’s ongoing construction in Nigeria, what you will likely find or notice is the presence of Dangote Cement. The brand has taken over the market. It has become the No1 choice of builders. Not only for builders, but producers in the block industry are also not left out. Mostly, they prefer Dangote Cement.
Over the weekend, City People visited many shops where cement is sold in retail and wholesale. What we found out is a testimony of what is happening in the market. One of the women who spoke with City People said, it used to be the other products…but when Dangote, at a time, drastically reduced its price, many builders switched over. She also talked about the product itself. But let us tell you more before we let you into that!
Dangote Cement (DC) is-$25bn market cap. The company is the largest cement producer in Africa with revenues of ~$ 2.0billion in 2014 and 43.3 mn tpa of cement production capacity. Founded by Aliko Dangote, (67th on the Forbes’ Rich List), DC has grown from being a single country business to one with operations across 13 countries on the continent.
Let’s also tell you that, Cement manufacturing is the prime focus of Dangote Cement. Championing self-reliance in Cement production in Africa, the company has commenced operations in 14 African countries for Cement – manufacturing/trading, clinker grinding, bagging and distribution. Dangote Cement now seeks to consolidate its Cement operations before eventually commencing operations in other allied building materials in the future. The company produces 53/43-grade cement based on market demand. World-class cement from Dangote’s modern cement plants is bagging in 50 Kgs poly sacks, 1.5 MT Jumbo bags for distribution apart from bulk sales in cement tankers.
So, out of curiosity to know what is happening in the market, City People investigation revealed why many builders prefer Dangote Cement ahead of other brands in the market.
According to a popular Mallam, who has been in the market for many years, he says, the no1 reason is that Nigerian builders like a quick thing! They like it when the job they do dries faster and that’s the hallmark of Dangote cement. It dries faster more than any other brand of cement. So, if you are building a house, you don’t have to wait for many days before you finish what you do.
The second is the full content of the bag. Some people call it over full. The content in Dangote Cement bag is a bit more than the content of any other cement brand and that was done a few years ago to woo customers and the gimmick has been yielding positive results. A lot of people believe a bag of Dangote Cement is bigger than any other brand in the market.
Another reason is that according to a female distributor Dangote Cement is constantly rolling out promos, where you have a chance to win quality gifts and many people have won gifts in the past.
What about pricing? When it comes to price, give it to Dangote. It has sold its cement for 1,200 naira at a time when other we’re selling about 2,000 naira. What they have simply done is that they have captured and lured more Nigerians to patronise their products and that’s working for the brand today as it remains the number choice for builders.
Dangote Cement Plc is a Nigerian multinational publicly traded cement manufacturers headquartered in Lagos. The company is engaged in the manufacture, preparation, import, packaging, and distribution of cement and related products in Nigeria and has plants or import terminals in 9 other African countries.
– Isaac Abimbade
