Dangote Industries is moving to acquire its own vessels as shipping capacity constraints and soaring road transport costs hamper the conglomerate’s efforts to expand exports across West and Central Africa. The move marks a significant shift in Dangote’s logistics strategy as the group seeks greater control over the movement of its products from Nigeria to regional markets, where inadequate access to shipping services has emerged as a major obstacle to trade.
Head of International Trade and Export at Dangote Cement, Sada Ladan-Baki, said the decision was driven by the difficulty of securing vessels for regional shipments. Speaking on Tuesday at a seminar on non-oil exports, Ladan-Baki said Dangote had encountered significant challenges transporting its products from Nigeria to markets across the region, despite the relatively short distances involved.
She cited an instance in which the company was unable to secure a vessel to transport a 1,000-metric-tonne consignment to Ghana. “We are moving forward towards getting our own ships in order to do this business,” Ladan-Baki said. She said the alternative of moving cargo by road was also proving increasingly expensive and inefficient, particularly for shipments to Ghana that must transit through neighbouring Benin and Togo.
Such movements attract taxes and other charges along the transit routes, pushing up logistics costs and undermining the competitiveness of Nigerian exports in regional markets. The shipping constraints have strengthened the case for Dangote to develop its own maritime transport capacity, potentially giving the group greater control over freight availability, costs and delivery schedules.
The planned vessel acquisition comes as Dangote’s operations become increasingly intertwined with maritime trade. The group’s $20bn refinery in Lagos is already reshaping Nigeria’s seaborne petroleum trade. The US Energy Information Administration said this week that Nigeria’s petroleum-product exports by sea have increased sevenfold since 2023, driven primarily by rising output from the Dangote refinery.
The refinery is also expected to handle about 600 vessels annually, including ships importing crude and those carrying refined petroleum products to domestic and international markets.