Against the backdrop of the controversy over the quality of cement among industry stakeholders and major manufacturers of the product in the country, Dangote Group, Nigeria’s largest cement producer, has moved to restate its commitment to producing the 42.5 grade cement while at the same time dispelling misinformation going the round about the quality of its products.
Speaking at a media parley its Union Marble House head office at Alfred Rewane Road, Ikoyi, Lagos recently, Devakumar V.G. Edwin, group managing director/CEO, Dangote Cement, expressed dismay over the false information being spread among industry stakeholders that the 32.5 grade of cement was better for building than the 42.5 grade the Dangote Group was producing.
He took time to explain the advantages of the 42.5, insisting that it has capacity for extra yield and ensures durability of buildings as extensive tests had carried out on it to show that it can give as much as 30 percent more strength than the 32.5 grade and can used in making more dense concrete with very low porosity.
He questioned the statements from some professionals in the construction industry supporting the false claim being made by some, insisting that the claims were either due to mischief or ignorance. “When technical people say that higher grades of cement will crack when used for construction works, it is either it is being said out of ignorance of cement technology or it is a deliberate attempt at dispensing false information,” he stated.
Speaking further, he frowned at the wrong information being peddled by many stakeholders. He stated: “There is a lot of misinformation going on in the country. A lot of these unscrupulous operators are saying that the 32.5 cement grade is better than the higher 42.5 grade. This is both ridiculous and laughable. Nowhere in the world has it been accepted that a higher grade product will perform less than a lower quality one.
“The process of testing these two grades of cement is a scientific issue and it can be quantitatively measured. So it leaves no room for doubt or confusion over which product is better,” he declared.
On the claim by some that SON had in times past allowed the importation and production of the lower grade, Edwin challenged other producers to show documentary evidence that SON authorised at any time the importation or production of the 32.5 grade.
“This clamour for 32.5 grade is daylight fraud. Let them show or produce evidence where SON has authorised them to produce 32.5 grade; obviously they have none. They simply took advantage of the system to produce 32.5 grade.”
Reacting to the current campaign by some stakeholders in the industry, Edwin declared that Dangote Group would always operate by global best practices, insisting that though each business was set up to make profits, the cement company would not put the lives in of its consumers in danger just to make profits.
He stated: “As a business philosophy, we value principles over money. We want to make profit but not at the expense of people’s live.”
Also speaking at the briefing, Rasheed Adebowale, chairman of Block Makers Association of Nigeria, who revealed that he was also a part of the committee put together by SON to find a lasting solution to the menace of building collapses, decried the situation where, of all the professionals involved in the only the block moulders were singled out for blame even when many professionals failed to employ industry standards and specifications in their building plans.
He said that years back during the Alhaji Lateef Jakande administration in Lagos state, when the governor built many of the housing estates still in existence in the state today, block makers were few and the association could monitor compliance to standards. At the time, he affirmed, the standard was for the use of one bag of cement in moulding between 28 and 30 blocks.
Today, however, he decried the proliferation of the block moulding sub-sector by people he described as “Kangaroo contractors” has worsened the situation, while at the same time allowing some block makers who were not members of the association, and who refuse to comply with the set standard of block making, to continue in the business. Thishe said, had led to a situation where as much as between 46 and 50 blocks are being made from one bag of cement, thereby churning out poor quality blocks.
Adebowale added that until recently when the SON gave its enforcement team a letter backing its operations across the country, the police had not helped in matters of enforcing compliance to its standards of practice as the security agents often sided with the defaulters.
He further called on all other cement manufacturers to emulate Dangote Cement as the 42.5 grade of cement was strong enough for all purposes of construction work.
Also present at the briefing, Abegunde Okunola, chairman of the Lagos chapter of the association, said the government must also go after unscrupulous building engineers, architects and brick layers who constantly sought cheap and substandard cement and blocks as against those made by members of the association in order to maximise profits.
