Lafarge Loses N2.5bn in Six Months to Insurgency in North-east

Group Managing Director/Chief Executive, Lafarge Africa, Mr. Guillaume Roux has revealed that the company incurred financial losses of about N2.5 billion as a result of the insurgency in the north-east region of the country.

He said the deficit, which was incurred between November last year and April 2015 followed the inability of the company to meet sales projections due to the restiveness occasioned by activities of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

He however, admitted that normalcy had since returned to its operations.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja shortly after a meeting with the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) held to finalise discussions on the role the cement company will play in the long term economic development of the North East, he said supporting the security, recovery and stability of the region had become critical to the future of its over $100 billion business expansion drive particularly in the northern region.

He said: ”Today we have up to 8.5 million tonnes in the country and we want to double that capacity in the next five years, we are expanding in Calabar and we want to expand in the north-so this project of $100 billion expansion in the north is key because there’s a market, its key because there’s growth and it’s been an essential project for us.

“And we believe that the assets and plants we have in the north is very strong, very competitive and we want to make sure the right conditions are there: there are. And there are a number of right conditions, security is essential-without security obviously we cannot invest. The economic development is essential, so we need to help.

He said: ”I can assure you what we’ve done in the past... if we have to be there in the next fifty years we have to participate in the defined initiatives to create jobs, to help education improve, to create other facilities and infrastructure. It’s good business to do that and we are very happy to have very good partners to support this development.”

Essentially, the proposed areas of partnership include contributing to the enhancement of entrepreneurship in the area, collaborating to develop modular solutions tom meet the demand for schools, providing solutions to attract and retain required talents, particularly in medical and education and to make existing training center available in support of skill development in the area as well as developing cost-effective solution to accelerate the rebuilding of homes and public facilities. Roux said the company had demonstrated its commitment to business expansion in the region through the ground breaking of an expansion project that was meant to grow Ashakacem capacity from the current one million metric tonnes to four million metric tonnes.

He said: ”Lafarge is a long term investor and this necessitates uninterrupted operations despite the insurgency that we have witnessed in recent times. Of course, we see security as a key ingredient for our continued operations and this is why we are a willing ally with PINE in restoring normalcy and rebuilding the region.”