Business surpasses all those thrash people learn in school, The main motive is to Squash the competition ad get the LION share, Thank God dat the Lafarge & Heildelberg of this world left Nigeria if not I dont think our Government would leave them and embrace Dangote, Thank God too dat the Dunlop & Michelin of this world have all left Nigeria, Itz time for Innoson to use all the Bag Of tricks available to get Nigerians and in particular this our NIGERIAN government to accept him the way we all accept Dangote, I would really love to Chuck in Innoson tyres in my cars but He must prove to us that we can trust his products

Great innovation mr chukwuma,I support u 100% .

I can see some eediots here trying to turn this thread into a tribal bashing one,against yorubas,u ppl re always paranoid I dnt know why.
@rhymz,I always look forward to read ur posts.keep it up

yeah guys his buses are d bomb, world class ,i enjoy it every day to school. even in nnewi town it's highly used bus this days

MONOPOLISTIC OPERATION IN THE CEMENT
INDUSTRY IS BAD FOR NIGERIA
Public Statement Issued by Ibeto Cement
Company Limited.
The Ibeto Cement Company Limited has
noted a series of misleading press reports
and comments being orchestrated for the
purpose of negating the very compelling
reasons for which the Federal Government
made the decision to reopen our cement
bagging plant in Port-Harcourt and
recreating adverse conditions that will
frustrate the restoration of work on the
plant.
These press reports mostly trade on
sophistry and guile, in order to obfuscate
the truth and confuse the very same
Nigerians for whose benefit our plant is
being reopened.
Quite obviously this calumnious press
campaign is being orchestrated by the same
monopolistic cartel that first contrived the
closure of the plant but their statements of
deception are easily exposed. We wish to
refer specifically to the following
newspaper publications:
a. This Day newspaper of Wednesday July
25; a front page report titled “Cement prices
set to crash”.
b. Punch newspaper of Monday July 30; a
back page report titled “Cement
Importation; Nigeria May lose $647 million.”
c. Independent newspaper of August 5; on
page C1 titled “High Expectations, Cautious
Optimism as Ibeto Cement Returns.”
d. Punch newspaper of Friday August 10;
on page 17, under the Business and
Economy review, titled “Why Cement Prices
Remain High.”
The above publications quoted copiously
from statements issued by certain
representatives of certain members of the
Nigerian cement cartel, namely, Mr. Akin
Adesokan, Managing Director, Dangote
Cement; Mr. Joseph Okonmah, Corporate
Affairs Manager, Dangote Group; Mr. George
Lourandos, Managing Director, WAPCO of the
Lafarge Group (Elephant and Atlas Cement)
and Chief Emmanuel Ukpabi, Managing
Director, Flour Mills of Nigeria (Burham
Cement).
In response to the numerous untruths and
contrived disinformation that are credited
to the above-named persons and the
organizations that they represent, for the
benefit of the Nigerian public, it is
necessary to present the incontrovertible
facts. These are:
1. The Ibeto Cement Company Limited has
not been favoured with an exclusive right
to import bulk cement into Nigeria. The
truth is that about 80% of all the cement
currently consumed in Nigeria is imported.
It is also pertinent to note that there are
only six (6) organisations in Nigeria with
the capacity to import or manufacture
cement. These are; the Lafarge Group,
Dangote Cement, Flour Mills of Nigeria,
Eastern Bulkcem (Eagle Cement), Ibeto
Cement Company and the Cement Company
of Northern Nigeria.
Among these, Dangote has been and
remains the biggest importer of bulk
cement into Nigeria, thanks to the Federal
Government yearly allocation that favours
Dangote with a quota of 6.5 million - 9
million MT per annum, against 3.2 million MT
per annum shared out among the rest of
the other four companies, excluding Ibeto
Cement.
2. The essential information regarding the
operation of these organisations are as
follows:
a) The Lafarge Group, comprising Ashaka
Cement in Gombe State currently producing
a mere 700,000 MT per annum; Ewekoro
and Sagamu (WAPCO) in Ogun State with a
combined production capacity of just 1.4
million MT per annum. This means that the
total output of all three cement factories
owned by the Lafarge Group in Nigeria is
only 2.1 million MT per annum. The Lafarge
Group also has a floating plant in Port-
Harcourt (Atlas Cement), for bagging
imported bulk cement which has a
production capacity of 2 million MT per
annum.
Lafarge, a French company, had entered
Nigeria some ten years ago, promising to
invest heavily in the Nigerian cement
industry. A grateful Nigerian government
threw our doors open, enabling the
company to pick up some very rich assets
at rock-bottom prices. These included
Ewekoro, Ashaka and Sagamu cement
factories. Since these concessionary
acquisitions, Lafarge has largely been
reaping without sowing. Practically none of
the expected expansions promised by the
company in these plants have been realized.
Instead Lafarge manoeuvred itself into
becoming the Lease Manager of the
Onigbolo Cement Factory, owned by the
governments of the Benin Republic (51%)
and Nigeria (43%). Lafarge, which has no
single share in this partnership, has become
the main beneficiary of that investment.
This is achieved through manipulating the
loophole that allows Lafarge to import
cement duty-free from Benin Republic,
which is an ECOWAS member country. The
Onigbolo plant has become a clever conduit
for cement to be brought in from overseas
and laundered through the Onigbolo plant
and then pushed into Nigeria, duty free,
under cover of the ECOWAS protocol. This is
why Lafarge is able to import so much
cement into Nigeria from this tiny Benin
plant with the claim that the plant is
producing at full capacity. The question
should be asked, why is it that La Farge
cannot perform the same miracle in its
Nigerian factories which are all struggling
on at very low capacity utilisation?
The truth is that there is no be miracle being
performed by La Farge at Onigbolo that is in
any way beneficial to Nigerians and the
Nigerian economy. What is going on there is
that La Farge is engaged in trickery utilizing
that plant to smuggle imported cement into
Nigeria. Money lost to Nigeria and gained by
this foreign company, Lafarge, through its
many ploys is in excess of $500 million U.S.
dollars per annum. This situation requires to
be fully investigated by the appropriate
agencies of our government, especially, the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) and Nigerian Customs Service. This is
especially important because of the fact that
there is no evidence that the duty waiver so
far enjoyed by Lafarge has translated into
lower prices for the Nigerian consumer or
substantially the improved welfare for the
company’s Nigerian workers. It is
noteworthy that just before he left office,
President Obasanjo directed the Bureau of
Public Enterprises to transfer to the Dangote
group the Federal Government’s
shareholding in this tiny Benin Republic
Cement plant. Could it be that the La Farge
and Dangote monopoly-promoting and
strategically mutually beneficial relationship
in Nigeria is being exported to the cement
plant in the Benin Republic?
Meanwhile Mr. George Lourandos, the Greek
Managing Director of Lafarge’s WAPCO
subsidiary, prefers to be cunningly
economical with the truth. He appears to
take delight in deceit and influence peddling
by manipulating public opinion and
government policy with false statistics. Mr.
Lourandos may want to explain to
Nigerians by what magic he intends to
produce 5.7 million MT of cement in one
year, from the figure of 2.1 million MT that
his three plants (Ashaka, Ewekoro and
Sagamu) are actually producing. A good
example of this foreign company’s
manipulative ways was, in the recent past,
manifested in their success at contriving
with President Obasanjo to shut down Ibeto
Cement – a setup by the vicious cement
cartel of which Lafarge is an important
arrowhead.
b) Dangote Cement, comprising Benue
Cement purchased from the Bureau of
Public Enterprises in 2001 and still
struggling at a meagre production level of
350,000 MT per annum; Obajana new
cement plant hurriedly commissioned by
President Obasanjo with a claimed capacity
of 5 million MT per annum which in reality is
producing less than 500,000 MT per annum.
Dangote Cement has been in the business of
bagging bulk cement since 1995, over 12
years ago, using Nigerian Ports Authority
infrastructure and buildings. It was only this
year, in May 2007, that Dangote finally
commissioned a cement manufacturing
plant of its own initiative.
Dangote, Nigeria’s largest importer of bulk
cement, has four bagging plants in the
country: the Lagos Cement Terminal at
Apapa Port, the Aliko Inland Terminal at
Lagos, one in Onne/Port Harcourt and one
in NPA Area 1 Port Harcourt with a
combined production of 3 million MT per
annum. With its overriding influence on the
Obasanjo regime, Dangote Cement always
managed to seize cement import quotas of
between 6.5 and 9 million MT per annum.
Keeping hold of so much import quota
enabled Dangote to limit what was available
to other operators. Dangote regulated how
much of their cement import quota to use
and when to use it and so has successfully
been manipulating market prices.
Dangote Cement did not only tyrannize
other producers but also succeeded in
frightening away would-be new entrants
into the cement industry with bogus claims.
These claims included wild production and
expansion figures that were never met but
were accepted by the Obasanjo
government as a basis for the issuance of
import quotas.
One wonders at the reasons for the
company to put the cost of its 5 million MT
capacity plant at Obajana at One Billion US
dollars, when Ibeto cement is building its
own plant of the same capacity for less than
300 million U.S. Dollars. We believe that the
only discernible reason is that Dangote is
acting to frighten away prospective
investors and thereby reduce competition.
More ominously, one would want to know if
these claims on plant costs and investment
costs would be accepted by the Securities
and Exchange Commission without question
in giving value to the company’s shares if
and when the company decides to go
public. We believe that the most viable
strategy for achieving cement security for
our dear country via local manufacture lies
in implementing public policies that
encourage more investors to enter the
cement industry with plants of all sizes,
some costing just about 20 million U.S.
Dollars, as is the case in China which has
over 120 cement factories.
Numerous Chinese businessmen have
approached Nigerian investors with offers
for turnkey cement projects, at the above-
mentioned price and even lower, but the
monopolistic trends in the industry have
proved too discouraging for these Nigerian
investors. Recent efforts by the Yar’Adua
government to create a level playing field in
the country are most commendable and
should be supported by all true patriots.
c) Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc (Burham), the
nation’s second largest importer of bulk
cement has only facilities for bagging
imported bulk cement, which they have
been operating for over twenty-five years
without any known operational cement
factory in place in Nigeria. This company
owns four 55,000 MT DWT ships dedicated
to bringing bulk cement into Nigeria for the
past 25 years. The plant has a production
capacity for bagging 2 million MT per
annum. All the claims the company makes
about developing a cement factory in
Calabar are based on the existence of a
company called UNICEM in which it is a
minority shareholder in partnership with
the following companies; Dangote (22%),
Holcium and Orascom. So much for the
claims of its Managing Director, Chief
Emmanuel Ukpabi of having invested the
sum of $800 million on cement production
facilities. All these false claims are just to
keep Ibeto Cement, a bona fide competitor,
out of business.
d) Eastern Bulkcem (Eagle Cement) which
has a bagging plant in Port-Harcourt with a
capacity of 600,000 MT per annum. The
company purchased Nigercem Nkalagu
from the BPE and is working hard to
reactivate it, despite problems with
shareholders and labour. This company also
suffered victimization during the Obasanjo
era for failing to join in the plot against
Ibeto Cement. It was shut down for 9
months and three of its cement vessels
were prevented from discharging their
cargoes.
e) Ibeto Cement Company Limited, operating
a bagging plant in Port-Harcourt with a
production capacity of 1.5 million MT per
annum commissioned in July 2005. This
plant, erected on virgin mangrove swamp
in downstream Port Harcourt reclaimed by
Ibeto Cement, was certified by the Federal
Ministry of Industry as the best bagging
plant in the country. Other operators of
bagging plants are utilizing developed NPA
facilities. The company is also developing a
5 million MT per annum cement factory in
Ebonyi State, in partnership with the
government of that state. These two
projects were grounded in November 2005
after only four months of the operation of
the bagging plant, by the order of the
former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo,
applying an executive fiat that was not
supported by any discernible rationale,
except for the spurious claim by a foreign
company, La Farge, that Ibeto Cement was
not supporting government
industrialisation efforts by not
instantaneously completing a local cement
manufacturing factory prior to operating
the bagging plant which the Federal
Government had given it permission to
erect.
This charge was duly debunked by
investigations carried out by the Federal
Ministry of Industry which found that Ibeto
Cement was very seriously engaged in
establishing a cement manufacturing plant
in Ebonyi State. Based on the findings of the
Inter-ministerial Committee (made up of
Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Finance,
Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, all
cement manufacturers and bagging plant
operators, Standards Organization of
Nigeria), the former Minister of Industry
recommended to the President to reopen
the Ibeto Cement factory. To the
consternation of most operators in the
industry, except of course, the monopolists
who had instigated President Obasanjo’s
earlier decision to close down the factory,
this recommendation was turned down by
the former President.
f) Cement Company of Northern Nigeria,
manufacturing 300,000 MT per annum in
Sokoto State. This company is the only
producer that is fully dedicated to
manufacturing as it does not engage in
importation of bulk cement for bagging.
3. Concluding Remarks
With all the facts and figures on the ground
especially when all cement plants in Nigeria
are still importing bulk cement, it is obvious
that the closure of the Ibeto Cement plant
was ill-motivated and unjust. It was
definitely not in the best interest of the
generality of Nigerians.
We believe that it was grossly unfair,
malicious and wicked of those who had
enjoyed the right to import and bag bulk
cement for 10 to 30 years before venturing
into manufacturing, to insist that Ibeto
Cement must first build a cement
manufacturing factory, before being
allowed to operate its own bagging plant.
We believe that there is no justification
whatsoever in shutting down a 12 billion
Naira factory after just four months of
operation on the basis of pressure from
monopolists, especially when, with all the
records available to the Federal government
that approved all the applications to set up
that bagging plant by Ibeto Cement before
the company commenced the project
Moreover the Federal Government, through
its relevant officials (including the person of
the Head of that Government, Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo), was constantly briefed
on progress of work as the plant was
erected on that very challenging virgin
mangrove swamp.
For the same people who contrived to shut
down Ibeto Cement plant to continue in the
same vein in an effort to frustrate the wise
decision of President Yar’Adua, made after
due process of consultation with all relevant
government ministries and agencies, to
reopen the plant, is simply unpatriotic and
selfish. They are all better advised to desist
from their efforts at eliminating competition
by all means and concentrate on making
their operations more efficient. This is the
sure way to survive competition in Nigeria’s
emerging democracy.
Finally, we wish to assure the Federal
Government and all Nigerians that, while
running our bagging plant in Port Harcourt,
we will assiduously and relentlessly
continue with the realization of our green
field cement manufacturing project in
Ebonyi State and will do everything possible
to fast-track its completion and
commissioning.
Dr. Ben U.C. Aghazu
Director ( Projects and Public Affairs)
Ibeto Cement Company Limited
17th June 2007

Innosson is really trying, a made in nigeria bus!! menn there is still hope in nigeria. This should be the pride of nigeria and nigerians, if i were to be the federal govt i will definitely support innosson by building mini a gas turbine powered electricity station to provide free and constant electricity to the innoson assembly plant.

I am proud of innosson , More greese to your elbow.

rhymz:

seriously, Aljaharam are you calling other people's distribution shops and malls Dangote's?? And even so, how is a distribution outlet similar to having a well defined office corner or factory to co-ordinate the sales of his product in the region? Forget abg everyone is getting wiser and people are begining to realize that the only safest place to have your investment in the Nigeria of today- where you are seen as a visitor in other parts of Nigeria instead of Nigerian-is home, your region where you can control and understand better the mindset of your own ppl. Besides, there is no need for him to even go up north, when you have places like lagos and portharcourt with better potentials for sales and distribution.
Another thing, I don't respect Dangote's business philosophy. He is more of a political business man than anything else.
I am in the manufacturing industry and can tell you that his philosophy is to some extent flawed. He is not the type to compete in a sector, he goes into a sector and sought to kill the biggesy players there through dishonest political manuevering and inciting the government to come up with stifling policies that that kills his competitor and put them out of business so he can take their place, monopolize the sector and fix prices at his whims and caprices. When competitors are very strong he resorts to sabotage, gangsterism, formation of cabal and even buying over experienced workers from competitors just to weaken their resolve. The reason why Dangote has become so wealthy is majorely because of his monopoly of many of the sectors, unfair advantages giving to just him as opposed to other Nigerian business men, his political connection, forming a gangstar bloc that fixes prices unfairly and dubious deals that award with defunct companies whose worth were grossly underpriced. Seriously, Mr Dangote is not your average hard working entreprenuer, he is a political business man and rely on politics to advance his conglomerate. Unlike Chukwuma who has not been giving thesame advantages but is making heads anyway and investing in where it realy matters in manufacturing. We need people to go into aspects of manufacturing that are heavy and capital intensive, not just the traditional manufacturing alone.

My brother, you got things a bit wrong

People are not investing in their region as you make it look. I would give you examples and you also would see reason with me.

First of all, people invest in the region where their are raw materials for their factories to work on as the case of Dantata (delta), Ibeto(port harcount) and Dangote ( Ogun, kogi)

All this people are not in their region but went to other regions to start their businesses and made fortunes.

Coschrais if I remember quite correctly started in Lagos.

so when we talk of people investing in their region, it has nothing to do with "my people" mentality but availability of raw materials, availability of the right market size, psychographics (mindset of consumers in the area) and distributive channel .

That is why I really love it if Innoson can spend a bit of time and money in opening branches (not necessary every single state) across Nigeria(other countries as well) and adverts.

Also I think it is about time the FG attention is call into this, Maybe he needs to go meet the FG and give them a business proposal.

I think the FG is ignorant of this development
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Innoson has some things to learn from Dangote. Now in each developed country, their are monopolistic companies that control things.

Dangote sponsor elections and in returns, the government does policies that favours him. This is not necessarily bad. Same thing likes of Aramco etc did

Let me remind you that Dangote is not only in Nigeria but also in benin republic and Ghana. Who do you think he employs as the top people in those countries ? Yes Nigerians. Not necessarily obvious but that is the case. It is in our favour.

Take a look at Multinations in Nigeria today, likes of Shell and co. Go to shell website and search for the top people in the Nigeria branch. You would find out it is Americans.

Unlike America that support their capitalist, We Nigerians might just be doing ourselves a great disservice by introducing regional play into it.

In as much as you might think it is unfair which I agree with, Innoson would have done the same if he was in Dangote shoes and you know it

Even you Rhymes would do the same. Competition is about winning isn't it ?

Alj harem,
Gbam, you said it all.

clip:

Alj harem,
Gbam, you said it all.

Thank you my brother.

Has he joined the cabal yet, if "no" then he won't succeed.
Let him join the cabal, he will ASAP become like dangote

Dear NairaLanders, please watch out for my own tyre company soonest (by God's grace). Though still in the embryo stage, I promise to give u the best quality and the best value for money. Love you all.
Nigeria shall be great again

aljharem:


Yes, He might even be bigger than Dangote and co with the way he is going. Once the awareness is there among Nigerians, then he should make it very big

It will take him as much as 30 years to reach Dangote's level. You know where dangote dey now? We talking about Global champion not local champion cos Dangote is NOW a global brand.