African richest man, Aliko Dangote, has disclosed that he has adopted alternative energy usage in running his companies, as diesel cost continues to soar.
In an interview with BizWatch Nigeria after the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Dangote Cement which was held on Tuesday, June 14, 2022, Dangote said with the increasing cost of diesel in the country, he resolved to decrease its usage, and give room for alternative energy.
“We are tackling that (diesel cost) because we’re doing quite a lot in terms of the alternative energy. Number one, some of our trucks are now being converted to use partially gas and diesel. And because we have reduced the consumption of diesel, we are using a lot of alternative fuel in almost all our plants across the country.
“It is going to take a little bit of time, but that will also help us to reduce production costs as well. And there are quite a lot of other things which we are doing to make sure that we reduce the cost of production. You know, you use a lot of energy to produce commodities like cement. So these are the areas that we’re looking at,” he revealed.
Why Dangote may have considered alternative energy
Many companies are presently struggling to survive -no thanks to the increment in diesel costs, which came into play since Russia invaded Ukraine.
While some firms have suspended operations as a result of the surging diesel prices, others have pruned down their staff strength to cut labour costs.
For Dangote, instead of suspending the operations of his companies or cutting down his staff strength, alternative energy is considerable leverage against the alarming diesel costs.
