The United States’ largest capitalized (public) companies are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google* and Facebook. In Nigeria, you have Dangote Cement, followed by MTN Nigeria, Airtel, BUA Cement and Nestle Nigeria. Do you see something there? The US leaders are united by one gene – technology. The Nigeria cohort does not have a clear pattern.
Yet, if you remove MTN Nigeria, Airtel Africa and Nestle Nigeria (the trio have foreign linkages), one thing becomes evident: indigenously, cement seems to be it. Technically, in a developing economy, that is expected. But the problem is that no building parts supplier registers in the top 40 of the Nigerian Stock Exchange chart.
That is expected since, unlike cement, none of the core building and construction raw materials are produced or packaged in Nigeria at scale. Looking at this chart, a smart government can get insights for a policy.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
Yes, cement cannot just power the two wholly indigenous companies when other building & construction materials firms do not make the top 40. Largely, people import those materials and buy cement locally. A policy designed for cement can work on steel, POP, ceiling sheets, etc to drive import substitution. Yes, we can get Dangote Cement and Bua Cement for iron sheets, ceiling sheets, etc, since from the cements, it is evident that people are buying buying materials.
And the big message: the technology space in Nigeria remains at infancy. Huge opportunities would be captured ahead.
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.
We are a country full of small minded people but large mouthed, that is why a lot of people fret and rant whenever Dangote is mentioned. Dangote is not actually the problem, but his compatriots are!
Why is Dangote our largest company? Because we don’t really have big companies, what we are referring as ‘large’ is sub $10B company, that should be worrisome; but in our small-mindedness, we are even envying the small one he managed to put together! We are really sick as a people.
If you have built or managed a duplex construction project, you will realise that you spend more on roofing sheet and tiles than on cement. Why haven’t anyone built an intimidating roofing sheet company and then get government to place ban on importation of same? Or is Dangote also blocking anyone from building that? Everyone is talking about cement because someone has succeed there, yet no one has taken it upon himself/herself to succeed in another, but it’s cool to beat Aliko up; at least it makes a lot of people with zero capability to feel morally superior.
If Transsion were to be a Nigerian company, don’t you think it would worth more than Dangote? There are things we spend more money on than cement, but no capacity to create anything worthwhile.
*has succeeded
“If you have built or managed a duplex construction project, you will realise that you spend more on roofing sheet and tiles than on cement. Why haven’t anyone built an intimidating roofing sheet company and then get government to place ban on importation of same? Or is Dangote also blocking anyone from building that? ” – most times, I write to read Francis Oguaju. Thanks