Cement manufacturing company Dangote has rejected accusations leveled against it by some local operators that its activities in Ghana are threatening the entire cement industry.
The operators, including Ghana Cement (GHACEM) and Diamond Cement, blame the Nigerian company for their dwindling fortunes accusing the cement giant of engaging in unfair competition that threatens local businesses.
They, therefore, are calling for government protection to enable them to stay in business else would have no option than to lay off some of their workers – a development that could further worsen the unemployment situation in the country.
But speaking with JOY BUSINESS’ Kuuku Abban in Nigeria where a team of media practitioners is on a tour of the 12-million- tonnes daily production plant, Media Relations Manager, Etornam Komla-Buami said all its operations have rather inured to the consumer’s benefit.
“GHACEM, as it stands now, is not a Ghanaian company, it is a foreign entity operating in Ghana. If you want to talk about local companies, you would even associate Dangote to be much more of local than GHACEM because we operate in Africa and it is an African business and GHACEM is not,” he said.
He believes that competition is good for every serious business entity adding that the last six years they have been in Ghana, the brand has introduced a lot of healthy competition.
“There were times in the history of Ghana that prices of cement would rise at any given time when Dangote came onto the market, prices have stabilise for some time now and even now it is going down.
“Again, before now, nobody in Ghana knew that cement was measured in terms of the grade. Dangote came onto the market with the highest grade of cement, 42.5 grade,” he explained.
According to Etornam Komla-Buami the company is not bothered about all the hue and cry regarding their operations in Ghana once they are working within the laws of the country.
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