LAGOS — Dangote Industries has concluded plans to acquire its own vessels to facilitate the transportation of its products from Nigeria to markets across West and Central Africa, amid growing concerns over limited shipping capacity and the rising cost of road transportation.
The planned acquisition is aimed at addressing some of the logistical challenges that have continued to hamper the company’s expansion into regional markets.
Speaking on the challenges affecting regional trade, Sada Ladan-Baki, Head of International Trade and Export at Dangote Cement, said the decision to acquire vessels was largely driven by the difficulty of securing adequate shipping capacity for the company’s products.
Ladan-Baki disclosed this on Tuesday at a seminar on non-oil exports, where she explained that Dangote had faced significant difficulties transporting its products from Nigeria to other West African markets.
According to her, the company once struggled to secure a vessel to transport a 1,000-metric-tonne consignment to Ghana, despite the relatively short distance between Nigeria and the neighbouring country.
«“We are moving forward towards getting our own ships in order to do this business,” Ladan-Baki said.»
She explained that while road transportation remained an alternative, it had become increasingly expensive and cumbersome because products moving from Nigeria to Ghana have to pass through other countries, including Benin and Togo.
The movement of goods through these transit countries, she said, often attracts taxes, levies and other charges, thereby increasing the overall cost of transportation.
Ladan-Baki noted that the additional costs make Nigerian products less competitive in regional markets, particularly when compared with goods transported from countries with more efficient and affordable logistics systems.
The development has therefore strengthened the case for Dangote to establish its own maritime transportation capacity as part of its strategy to improve the movement of goods across the region.
The planned acquisition also comes at a time when maritime transportation is becoming increasingly important to Dangote’s growing business operations.
The company’s $20 billion refinery in Lagos has significantly increased Nigeria’s participation in seaborne petroleum-product trade. According to the United States Energy Information Administration, Nigeria’s petroleum-product exports by sea have increased seven-fold since 2023, largely due to rising output from the Dangote refinery.
The refinery is also projected to handle about 600 vessels annually, comprising ships bringing crude oil into the facility and vessels transporting refined petroleum products to domestic and international markets.
Reacting to Dangote’s planned vessel acquisition, the President of the Indigenous Shipping Association of Nigeria, Otunba Shola Adewumi, said the company had historically relied on foreign-flagged vessels to transport crude oil and refined petroleum products to markets around the world.
He attributed the reliance on foreign vessels largely to Nigeria’s limited capacity to provide vessels of the size and specification required for large-scale maritime operations.
Adewumi, however, cautioned that purchasing vessels was only the first step, stressing that the cost and technical demands of maintaining and managing ships could present a more significant challenge.
«“Dangote is a Nigerian and a businessman, and he is free to do whatever he wants. It is very easy to buy a ship, but maintaining the ship is a different ball game,” he said.»
He urged Dangote to consider registering the vessels under the Nigerian flag, saying such a move would increase the country’s registered tonnage and strengthen Nigeria’s position in the international shipping industry.
«“We also hope that Dangote will put those vessels under the Nigerian flag so as to add more tonnage to the national fleet and increase Nigeria’s influence in the international shipping community,” Adewumi added.»
According to him, the acquisition could also have wider economic benefits for Nigeria by creating employment opportunities for Nigerian seafarers and other professionals working in the maritime, logistics and international trade sectors.
The planned move is expected to reduce Dangote’s dependence on third-party shipping operators, improve the reliability of its export logistics and potentially lower the cost of moving its products to markets across West and Central Africa.
