By InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMR&DC) is seeking collaboration with Dangote Group on Local Content.

This is contained a Statement from Dangote Group and made available to www.investadvocateng.com in Lagos Nigeria.

Azikiwe Peter Onwualu, Director General (DG) of RMR&DC said this during a visit with his team to the Ibese Plant of Dangote Cement Plc in Ogun State Nigeria.

“Impressed by the latest technology at the Ibese plant of Dangote Cement, the Raw Material Research and Development Council has called for a partnership with the Cement Company in the area of raw material sourcing and deepening of the local content policy of the Federal Government” the Statement said.

Onwualu said given the exploits of Dangote Cement in the industry; coupled with the latest technologies deployed in the excavation of raw materials for production which is more environmental friendly, RMR&DC is seeking to collaborate with Dangote group in the areas of raw material sourcing, research and development and deepening the Local Content policy.

He affirmed that the RMR&DC under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology would be ready to partner Dangote Cement in researching into
areas through which gypsum could be discovered in large commercial quantity, processing it to acceptable purity of over 90% and pushing for Federal Government interest in opening up the gypsum business as commercially viable capable of attracting massive government infrastructure in the sector.

“This way, more jobs will be created with the intermediate industries that will come up instead of the wholesome import of this raw material from outside the country” Onwualu said.

In his response, Ved Prakash Sarkari, Deputy Director at Dangote Cement who led the team that received the visitors said Dangote Cement was already looking at the new standard sand production policy and assured that the company would also be there to compliment efforts of government in that direction.

Sarkari further affirmed that Dangote Cement adopted the latest technology in its cement production from the mines to the loading bay.

“The Surface Mining Machines eliminated noise associated with blasting of limestone, while the laboratory is robotic operated to eliminate human errors in analysing the production processes” he said.

According to him, the construction of the six million tons Per Annum (PA) second line to the existing one was already underway “at the completion, Ibese Plant would be producing 12 million tons per annum” he affirmed.

In the same vein, the RMR&DC team later paid a visit to Devakuma Edwin, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Office (GMD/CEO) of Dangote Cement in Lagos where they reiterated the need for collaboration between the two parties.

On his part, Segun Kuti-George, President of the Lagos State Chapter of National Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI) who toured the Dangote Cement Ibese Plant with the RMR&DC team lauded the entrepreneurial spirit of Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the Dangote Group.