Aliko Dangote plans to buy ships after cement export snags
Aliko Dangote’s Dangote Industries is moving to acquire its own ships after struggling to secure vessels for even a 1,000-tonne cement shipment from Nigeria to Ghana, a senior executive said, aiming to cut costly road taxes and back West and Central African exports.
Key Takeaways
- Dangote Cement could not find a ship for a 1,000-metric-tonne Nigeria-to-Ghana cement cargo.
- Sada Ladan-Baki said the group is advancing plans to get its own vessels for regional trade.
- Road exports face stacked 18% VAT charges in Benin, Togo and Ivory Coast, squeezing margins.
- The push fits Nigeria’s wider drive to rebuild domestic shipping capacity and cut foreign freight reliance.
For readers tracking Africa’s richest industrialists, this logistics bet sits squarely in our Net Worth & Wealth coverage of how tycoons protect margins at scale.
Why is Aliko Dangote buying ships now?
Sada Ladan-Baki, head of international trade export at Dangote Cement, told a seminar on non-oil exports that Dangote Industries is “moving forward towards getting our own ships” to move products from Nigeria into West and Central Africa, Business Insider Africa reported, citing BusinessDay.
The trigger was blunt: the company said it could not secure a vessel for a 1,000-metric-tonne cement shipment to neighbouring Ghana—despite the short distance. That shortage left a heavy exporter stuck between scarce coastal capacity and expensive overland routes.
How do road taxes hurt Dangote cement exports?
Dangote Cement has exported for about 16 years and holds roughly 50 million metric tonnes of annual capacity, Legit.ng reported. It still leans on a fleet of about 7,000 trucks for Ghana, Togo and Ivory Coast.
Ladan-Baki said cement heading to Ghana must pay 18% VAT in Benin, then again in Togo, with another 18% if cargo continues to Ivory Coast. Those charges pile up before goods reach buyers and blunt Nigerian cement’s price edge in regional markets.
Owning ships would let the group bypass some corridor taxes and tighten control over logistics—similar to how it has invested in ports, terminals and a Lekki jetty supporting its $20 billion Lagos refinery.
What does this mean for Nigeria’s shipping gap?
Nigeria’s National Shipping Line collapsed in 1995, and BusinessDay estimates about $6 billion in annual freight earnings largely go to foreign operators. BUA Group, controlled by Abdul Samad Rabiu, bought two vessels in 2022 for sugar exports—showing industrial peers already self-supplying ships.
Ladan-Baki urged faster access to Nigeria’s Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund and more bank and Afreximbank support for vessel purchases. Separately, seaborne petroleum-product exports have jumped roughly seven-fold since 2023 on Dangote refinery output, and the plant is expected to handle about 600 vessels a year—raising the stakes for group-owned maritime capacity beyond cement alone.