Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) has certified Dangote Cement as having passed the Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP), a development the agency said has stood out the company among its competitors in the industry.
Director-General of the SON, Osita Anthony Aboloma who made these disclosures also said that a new revised standard for cement production in Nigeria had been released.
The SON DG who was represented by the agency’s Director of Standard Development, Mrs. Chinyere Egwuonwu stated these during a partnership facility tour of the Dangote Cement Plant, Obajana, Kogi State by top officials of the organization from the Northern parts of the country.
He noted the new certification was an attestation to the Dangote Cement Plc’s quality products and its capacity to conduct in-process and in-house tests on its raw materials and finished products in conformity with relevant national standards.
“Through our conformity assessment activities, we have always visited your plants on routine quarterly factory inspections to ensure compliance of your products to relevant national standards. The outcome of these activities is the certification of your products to the Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme.”
The SON boss further disclosed that the revised standard for cement NIS 444-1:2018 has been approved by the Standard Council of Nigeria and is ready for implementation.
Aboloma commended Dangote Cement for its active participation especially in the area of standard development saying the SON appreciated the company’s effort and that the SON would be ready to partner and collaborate with the company’s management.
He promised that the SON would continue to collaborate and provide the required support with Dangote Cement, other private sector operators and stakeholders to ensure availability of the relevant standards for both raw materials and finished products.
In his remark, the Group Managing Director of Dangote Cement Plc, Engr. Joseph Makoju said the Company has never taken the issue standard with levity and that is why it does not limit itself to the set standards but usually exceeds standard both in quality of its products and environmental friendliness of its plants operations.
He stated that standard could not be compromised if products from Nigeria are to compete favourably with foreign ones noting that it was for the reason of high standard that Dangote cement has been a leader in all the countries where it is sold.
The Dangote cement GMD explained that its partnership with the SON as the regulating agency was born out of the quest of Dangote Cement to keep to standard and that the organization has invested heavily in machineries that ensure that the products quality standard is second to none.
He explained that the decision of the Company to take the lead in the backward integration policy of the federal government has paid off and that it was for the role of Dangote Cement that Nigeria is now self-sufficient in cement production and consumption.
Makoju advocated a replication of the policy in other sectors of the Nigerian economy because over reliance on oil has not helped the nation’s economy.
The Obajana Plant Director, Mr. Veeraraghavan Sirinivasan boasted that the largest single cement plant in Africa, South of Sahara was the Obajana cement plant and thanked the SON officials for deeming it fit to visit the plant as partners.
He promised that Dangote cement would keep the flag of standard adherence flying and would stop at nothing to ensure Nigeria remains key in the cement sector in Africa.