Group Managing Director/Chief Executive, Lafarge Africa, Mr. Guillaume Roux has said that the cement company lost a total of N2.5 Billion naira in Six months (November 2014 to April 2015) because of insurgency in the North East.
While speaking to journalists in Abuja after a meeting with the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) held to discuss the role the cement company will play in the long term economic development of the North East, Roux 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.
“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.
”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.”
Chairman of PINE who also chairs the Special Committee on the Resettlement and Rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Prof. Soji Adelaja also added that “It’s only natural that they come to the table and we come to the table as we are planning for the north east to say what can you do for us in the process of building the north east.
“So I think Nigeria has been good for them offering them the market but in addition to offering them the market it’s about helping to abate the security situation that has been critical to their operation. It’s an effort of the company to step out and say we believe in the future of this region and we would work with infrastructure to help establish the future of the region.”