Dangote Cement Plc has clarified that the reason for its recent introduction of the higher cement grade the 52.5N was to offer consumers variety of choices in their quest for quality products.

Group Managing Director of the company, Devakumar Edwin, told a group of block makers who visited his office in Lagos at the weekend that the new cement grade would be produced alongside the 42.5N grade. He assured that Dangote Cement would not relent in the quest to sanitise the industry and rid the market of lower quality cement.

According to Edwin, the launching of the new cement was one of the responses of Dangote Cement as a leading manufacturer of the commodity in Africa to the efforts at stemming the tide of building collapse arising from the use of poor quality cement.

The block makers who visited the Dangote Group Headquarters in Lagos commended the initiative of the company in producing a higher grade of cement at a time the quality of cement had become an issue. They said the new cement grade would offer cement users an opportunity to choose which grade suits their construction as opposed to the former situation where a grade of cement was used for almost all constructions.

The block makers also stated that with the new 52.5N grade, the chances of substandard cement finding their way into the market have become further reduced.

It would be recalled that Dangote Cement Plc at a press briefing had announced the commencement of a production of a higher grade of cement, 52.5N, being first in Africa to produce such.

Edwin had told newsmen the 52.5N cement has been a standard already in existence and that it was just that Dangote Cement decided to be producing it to add to the choices of quality cement available in the market for its consumers.

Stating that the new brand is now being produced from all of its three plants in Ibese, Ogun State, Gboko, Benue State, and Obajana in Kogi State, the GMD disclosed that it would sell for the same amount as the 42.5N grade despite that the cost of production is higher. “It is in the interest of our customers to make it affordable,” he stated.

Basking in the euphoria of the new feat, Edwin disclosed that the new cement grade, which has been certified by the Standard Organization (SON), as conforming to the requirements of NIS 444-2003 and other relevant standard institutions would be made available in all parts of the country.

Edwin flaunted before newsmen, the SON certificate which read in part “considering the inspection carried out at your factory by a team of SON officers and the outcome of the laboratory samples of the product of your company, I have the pleasure to inform you that the under listed product of your company is hereby adjudged by the SON to conform to the requirements of NIS 444-1:2003 and other relevant standards.”

•Photo shows Dangote Cement GMD, Devakumar Edwin.