The Dangote Group said Tuesday that its investments on new projects on agriculture, sugar, oil refinery and fertilisers would create additional 250,000 employment opportunities for Nigerians when completed.

The projects, sited in some states, including Jigawa, Taraba, Kano and Kogi, according to the group, will encourage self-sufficiency in food production and reduce capital flight from the country. Executive Director (Communications) of the Group, Alhaji Ahmed Mansur, told newsmen in Abuja that the company’s cement production was expected to grow from its current 40 million tonnes to between 75 million and 80 million tonnes in 2020.

He said it was projected that about 40 million tonnes of the product would be produced by the company in Nigeria. Mansur commended the Federal Government’s efforts at diversifying the economy, especially through agriculture and solid mineral, adding that the policy was a sustainable and inclusive direction for economic growth.

On the conglomerate’s Backward Integration Sugar Project, he said that the existing 6,000 hectares of sugarcane plantation would be expanded to cover 12,000 hectares to boost local sugar production.

“We are focusing on increasing investment in agriculture; we have the largest transport fleet and we are developing new sugar plantations in Sokoto, Taraba, Niger and Kwara to reduce imports.’’

The Dangote Group is a Nigerian multinational industrial conglomerate. It is the largest conglomerate in West Africa and one of the largest on the African continent. It generated revenue in excess of three billion dollars in 2015. The group is one of the leading diversified business conglomerates in Africa, and employs more than 26,000 people.