Abidjan – Aliko Dangote, Nigeria’s business mogul, on Tuesday in Abidjan said he was targeting the  production of 33 million tonnes of cement by 2015, with a large share going to West African countries.

Dangote, who was represented by Joseph Makoju, at a Border-less Conference aimed at removing barriers to trade in West Africa, said his cement companies in the country currently produce about 20 million tonnes, of which 17 million tonnes cater for the market in Nigeria.

Majoku is a Special Adviser to the Chief Executive Officer of the Dangote Group.

Dangote, in a presentation to businessmen and stakeholders in West Africa, said: “We are poised to become the largest cement producing company in Africa by 2015.’’

He said the Dangote group had already extended its reach to 14 African countries and had already concluded arrangement for investment in import terminals in Ghana, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire.

Dangote said the West African region must overcome the spectre of political instability, wars and conflicts in order to attract foreign investors.

“Investors are averse to risk and they always want to play safe. Also, we have the challenge of infrastructure deficit and yet we want to be competitive.

“We must also learn to respect the sanctity of contracts. ’’

He said West Africa had some of the fastest growing economies in the world, but businesses be must be encouraged to grow by reducing the bottlenecks in doing business and encouraging free movement of people, goods and services in the region.

In his remarks at the conference, the Commissioner of Ghana Revenue Authority, George Blackson, said corruption remained “`a significant barrier to trade in Africa”.

Blackson said the corruption on trade routes could be reduced by cutting down the number of security outfits and the multiplicity of check points.

“We are already taking a number of actions to fight the menace in Ghana, with internal networks that investigate corruption. ’’

In his intervention, a former Ivorian Minister of Transport, Adama Coulibaly, said the strength in trade and development in West Africa lies in Public Private Partnership (PPP) for the development of infrastructure.

Coulibaly also called for more exploration of the PPP in regional trade. (NAN)