Dangote Industries Limited has disclosed plans to acquire its own vessels to transport cement and other industrial products to markets across West and Central Africa, citing Nigeria’s shortage of suitable export ships and the high cost of moving goods by road through neighbouring countries.
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Sada Ladan-Baki, Head of International Trade Export at Dangote Cement, disclosed the plan on Tuesday at a seminar on non-oil exports, saying the group had reached the point where ownership of vessels was becoming necessary to overcome persistent logistics constraints.
“We are moving forward towards getting our own ships in order to do this business,” Ladan-Baki said.
He said the difficulty had become so severe that the company could not readily find a vessel to move as little as 1,000 metric tonnes of cement from Nigeria to nearby Ghana.
“As of today, you cannot get a ship that will take your goods from here to Ghana. None. And that is for 1,000 metric tons, what the small traders and the business people can do,” he said.
Dangote Cement began exporting cement about 16 years ago and has since expanded its annual production capacity to about 50 million metric tonnes.
The wider Dangote Group has also increased its participation in Nigeria’s non-oil export market through fertiliser and other industrial products. The report stated that the group’s fertiliser production by June 2026 had almost matched its entire 2025 output, which accounted for more than eight per cent of Nigeria’s non-oil exports during the period.
Despite the growth in production, the company said transportation remained one of the biggest obstacles to expanding regional exports.
To supply customers across the Economic Community of West African States and parts of Central Africa, including Cameroon, the group developed an extensive road logistics system and established assembly facilities that produced about 7,000 trucks for product distribution.
Ladan-Baki, however, said dependence on road transportation had become expensive and placed Nigerian exporters at a competitive disadvantage because of taxes and charges imposed as trucks cross neighbouring countries.
He cited the example of transporting cement from Nigeria to Ghana, saying trucks could face an 18 per cent Value Added Tax in Benin Republic, further charges in Togo and another 18 per cent tax where products were being moved towards Côte d’Ivoire.
“If we are going to export our cement from here to Ghana, we have to pay Value Added Tax of 18 percent in Benin. We pay in Togo. We pay another 18 percent if we are going to Ivory Coast,” he said.
According to him, the cumulative charges make Nigerian products substantially more expensive before they reach their intended markets.
“So by the time the trucks get to these places, the taxes these countries charge us have already made us dead on arrival. How can Nigerian companies become competitive with all these barriers?” he asked.
The company believes greater use of maritime transportation could reduce some of the costs associated with overland trade and strengthen the competitiveness of Nigerian manufacturers in regional markets.
However, Ladan-Baki said the shortage of Nigerian-owned vessels capable of moving industrial cargo remains a major constraint.
Nigeria has struggled to rebuild significant indigenous shipping capacity since the collapse of the Nigerian National Shipping Line in 1995 after about 36 years as a state-owned shipping company.
The weakness of local shipping has meant that a substantial portion of freight generated by Nigerian international trade is carried by foreign-owned vessels.
Nigeria’s annual freight market has been estimated at about $6 billion, with local shipping operators capturing only a limited share of the earnings.
The challenge has prompted some of Nigeria’s largest industrial groups to invest directly in vessels and port infrastructure rather than depend entirely on existing shipping capacity.
In 2022, BUA Group, owned by businessman Abdul Samad Rabiu, took delivery of two vessels acquired to support sugar exports to other West African markets.
The vessels were expected to operate through the company’s port and terminal facilities in Rivers State, increasing export capacity while reducing operating costs.
Dangote Group already controls significant maritime infrastructure.
The conglomerate operates dedicated port terminals at Onne and Apapa and also constructed a jetty at Lekki, Lagos, to accommodate vessels serving its $20 billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery and associated facilities.
The proposed acquisition of additional vessels would further integrate the group’s production, export and maritime logistics operations.
Ladan-Baki said resolving Nigeria’s wider shipping deficit would, however, require more than individual companies buying vessels.
He called for the activation and disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund, which was established to provide financial support for Nigerian operators seeking to build or acquire vessels.
The fund, which has accumulated for about 23 years, is estimated at roughly $700 million.
The Federal Government opened an application portal for the fund in January 2026 and indicated that disbursement could begin within 90 days.
Seven months later, however, shipowners were still awaiting the first disbursements.
Ladan-Baki urged the government to move ahead with the programme, arguing that financing remained one of the major barriers preventing Nigerian businesses from acquiring vessels and building a stronger indigenous shipping industry.
He also called on commercial banks and development finance institutions, including the African Export-Import Bank, Afreximbank, to play a more active role in funding vessel acquisitions.
According to him, developing domestic shipping capacity would help Nigerian manufacturers take fuller advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area by reducing logistics costs and improving access to markets across the continent.
The Dangote executive maintained that Nigeria could not become a major export-driven economy while depending almost entirely on foreign shipping companies or expensive road transportation to move locally manufactured goods to neighbouring countries.
“We can only succeed if our two hands are clapping,” he said.
“We will only be happy if the country is self-sustaining in terms of shipping.”
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