BUA Cement Plc, a fast-growing cement company owned by Nigerian billionaire Abdul Samad Rabiu, paid its employees a whopping N4.76 billion ($10.7 million) in salary in the first nine months of its fiscal year 2022, as the company continues to expand its cement operations.
During the period under review, the cement company, which is majority owned by Rabiu, Nigeria’s second-richest man behind fellow industrialist Aliko Dangote, paid out a total of N4.76 billion ($10.7 million) in salaries and wages to its workers.
This is a 19.8-percent increase from the N3.98 billion ($9 million) that it paid out to its employees in the first nine months of 2021 when profit exceeded N65 billion ($145 million).
The $10.7-million salary package that it awarded to its employees during the first nine months of 2022 included a N3.12-billion ($7 million) wage to employees directly involved in the production of cement in its plants, as well as a total of N1.64 billion ($3.7 million) to employees providing support services to the group’s operations.
In addition, the fast-growing cement company paid out a bonus of N776.85 million ($1.75 million) to employees, which is 8.5-percent less than what was paid out to workers during the same period the previous year.
BUA Cement, a Lagos-based cement firm that ranks as Nigeria’s second-largest cement company, operates with a combined installed capacity of 8 million metric tonnes per annum. Rabiu, who ranks as one of Africa’s wealthiest billionaires, derives the majority of his fortune from his 92-percent stake in BUA Cement.
The leading cement manufacturer’s profit figures rose by 12.3 percent during the first nine months of its 2022 fiscal year, from N65.9 billion ($145 million) during the same period of 2021 to N74 billion ($168.4 million), as cement sales increased by double digits.
As part of its efforts to boost earnings and valuation, the cement maker is considering obtaining a loan from the International Finance Corporation to expand its Kalambaina cement plant in Sokoto State, increasing the plant’s nameplate capacity from 2 million metric tonnes per annum to 8 million metric tonnes per annum, and developing ancillary utilities.
