The Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) has said its cement business, since 2003, has paid over N200 billion in corporate, withholding and education taxes.
According to the Company, it is more than what major banks in the country paid.
The Company also said it paid the value added tax (VAT) of about N27 billion every month under the same period, Blueprint Weekend has gathered.
The president of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, disclosed this at a recent media parley in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos state.
He said the Dangote Group had become a successful conglomerate with investments across various sectors such as cement, fertiliser as well as oil & gas across 10 African countries.
“Today, when you look at what we have actually paid, in taxes, when you calculate generally, for every N1 we turn around, in various taxes, our taxes are 52 per cent. In our own cement business, in the last couple of years, from 2003, we have actually paid more taxes than the entire major banks in the country. We paid about 170 billion in corporate tax. We paid in education. Withholding tax was about 30 billion. So, it’s over 200 billion. Right now, VAT is about 900 million daily payments. We paid about 27 billion every month in terms of VAT.”
Speaking further on cement, Dangote said currently, 75 per cent of revenue of his conglomerate comes from the cement business; 80 per cent of EBITDA from Nigeria and 90 per cent of revenue in various local currencies.
According to him, the future projection is 15 per cent of revenue from the cement business, 50 percent of EBITDA from outside Nigeria (including exports) and 70 percent of revenue in hard currency.
“So, 75 per cent of our revenues used to come from the cement business. 80 per cent of our EBITDA was coming from Nigeria. So, 90 per cent of the revenue is in various local currencies. When you look at it, with about 80 per cent of our earnings before interest and depreciation is a little bit high. It is a risk dominated in one single currency here in Nigeria. So, we now changed and decided to dollarise our business, which is what we have done. So, 15 per cent now of the revenue, going forward, will come from cement from 75 per cent and 50 per cent of our EBITDA will come from outside Nigeria, including exports.
“By 2025, full year, our revenues will be over 30 billion. Currently, it’s about 75 per cent from cement. This is just to tell you how we have kept on re-engineering the company. This is because, when you stay in one place or remain dormant, events will take place and you will find yourself in trouble. So, what we are trying to do is to totally get ourselves out of the demand for foreign exchange from the Central Bank of Nigeria and what we want to do is actually to be the biggest supplier of foreign exchange in the foreign exchange market. So, we want to be suppliers, not people that will demand FX from the CBN.”
He also said, “In cement, we have spent 1.7 billion. Luckily, in the project, we also had problems with Ogun state in 2017. We have now gone back to site and we are building a brand new six million tonnes of cement. We mainly target exports and that will give us quite a lot of money.
“What we are doing is that we want to make sure that apart from selling domestic, we will create excess and export. This is because you won’t really become an exporter unless you have self-sufficiency. I keep telling people that whatever you export, you will export even cheaper than the domestic market because you are competing with everybody. You are competing with China, everybody. So, you will only export your excess. It is just a line airline businessman.”
On how the cement dream came to fruition, he said, “How did we get here? Yes, the government gave us support in the cement business. They gave us a tax holiday for five years. Tax holiday is not for you to make money and then go and build mansions in Dubai. It is for you to reinvest in the business and create more jobs, more growth and prosperity. That’s what we have done.
“We concentrated on that, really. That’s why I am the only Nigerian that doesn’t own a nine-inch block outside Nigeria. I don’t have a house outside Nigeria. We are actually the largest employer of labour. We also ensure our workers enjoy a good working standard. This is reflected in our inclusion in the top paying firms in Nigeria.”
On the future plan in the oil and gas refinery, Dangote said, “70 per cent of the revenue will be in hard currency. So, the growth is underpinned by investment in the pipeline in the last couple of years, which we have actually seen a scrutiny of in the last couple of years. If you look at what we have done, you have seen the picture of 2013 when we signed the agreement. I hard few grey hairs, but right now Nigeria has brought out more as observed by Adeshina of AfDB.”