Oscarline Onwuemenyi
28 February 2018, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Ashaka Cement Company has begun the construction of an N11 billion power plant to generate 16 megawatts of electricity.
The Managing Director of the company, Mr. Rabiu Umar, made the disclosure in a statement, yesterday, said that the project being built in the Funakaye Local Government Area of Gombe State was flagged off last year and that it was expected to be completed in 2019.
Mr. Umar explained that the N11 billion project is being handled by a Chinese firm, BTG, and that the project would help to significantly reduce the energy costs of the firm.
Umar said, “Last year, we started our power plant, which is a N11 billion project, and we hope to inaugurate the project soon. Currently, we rely on generators for our operations, which consume much fuel and whether you are using diesel or petrol, it has strong correlation to foreign exchange.
“So, we are helping to remove ourselves from the demand for energy and providing our own solution, which means a minimum of 16 megawatts of electricity will now become available to the public grid for the people in the region to enjoy from. The power plant is our biggest plan aimed at reducing our costs.”
Umar stated that the plans included working to reduce its environmental footprint in its host community by sourcing for cleaner source of energy for its operations.
He added, “As the largest industrial concern in the entire North-East region, it is a legacy we will want to keep by expanding our operations. We have three focus areas of youth education, empowerment and healthcare as a business and our desire is to deepen our relationship by empowering people.
“As a business, we are also committed to reducing our CO2 emissions by 40 per cent by 2030, what that means is that we must find better ways of producing the same cement by using less toxic fuel.
“The idea is to use the by-products of farming, for instance, palm kernel shells, rice husk and coffee husk where it exists, and using them to produce cement and reducing the amount of toxic fuel we use. It comes with a lot of benefits.”