Dangote Industries is set to acquire its own shipping vessels to address limited maritime capacity and rising road transportation costs that have continued to constrain the conglomerate’s expansion into West and Central African markets.

The move is expected to strengthen Dangote’s logistics chain and facilitate the movement of cement and other products from Nigeria to markets across the region.

Speaking on the logistical challenges facing regional trade, Sada Ladan-Baki, Head of International Trade and Export at Dangote Cement, said the decision was driven largely by the difficulty of securing adequate shipping capacity.

Ladan-Baki disclosed this on Tuesday at a seminar on non-oil exports, where she highlighted the challenges the company has faced in transporting products from Nigeria to neighboring African markets.

According to her, Dangote once struggled to secure a vessel to move a 1,000-metric-tonne consignment to Ghana, despite the relatively short distance between the two countries.

“We are moving forward towards getting our own ships in order to do this business,” she said.

She explained that road transportation presents its own challenges because products destined for Ghana have to pass through neighboring countries, including Benin and Togo, where additional taxes, levies and other charges are imposed.

The resulting increase in logistics costs, she said, makes Nigerian exports less competitive and has reinforced the need for Dangote to develop its own maritime transportation capacity.

The planned acquisition comes as Dangote’s businesses become increasingly dependent on maritime trade, particularly following the commencement of large-scale operations at its $20 billion refinery in Lagos.

The United States Energy Information Administration recently reported that Nigeria’s petroleum-product exports by sea have increased seven-fold since 2023, driven primarily by rising output from the Dangote refinery.

The refinery is also expected to handle about 600 vessels annually, including ships transporting crude oil into Nigeria and vessels carrying refined petroleum products to domestic and international markets.

Reacting to the development, President of the Indigenous Shipping Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Otunba Shola Adewumi, said Dangote had historically relied on foreign-flagged vessels to transport crude oil and refined petroleum products because Nigeria lacked sufficient vessels with the required capacity.

Adewumi, however, cautioned that purchasing vessels was only the beginning, stressing that their maintenance and management could prove more challenging.

“Dangote is a Nigerian and a businessman, and he is free to do whatever he wants. It is very easy to buy a ship, but maintaining the ship is a different ball game,” he said.

He urged Dangote to consider registering the vessels under the Nigerian flag, arguing that doing so would increase the country’s shipping capacity and strengthen Nigeria’s position in the international maritime industry.

“We also hope that Dangote will put those vessels under the Nigerian flag so as to add more tonnage to the national fleet and increase Nigeria’s influence in the international shipping community,” Adewumi said.

The acquisition could also generate employment opportunities for Nigerian seafarers and other professionals in the maritime and international trade sectors.

For Dangote, establishing a dedicated shipping fleet could provide greater control over its supply chain, reduce dependence on third-party shipping operators and road transport, and improve the competitiveness of its exports across the African market.

For Nigeria’s maritime sector, the move could also contribute to the growth of domestic shipping capacity if the vessels are registered locally and operated with a greater participation of Nigerian maritime professionals.