By Yinka Kolawole

Dangote Cement Plc has unveiled plans to cut net carbon dioxide (CO‚ ) emissions intensity by 20 per cent while expanding production capacity to 80 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by 2030, as it pursues its ambition of becoming Africa’s most sustainable and globally competitive cement producer.

Presenting the company’s 2025 Sustainability Scorecard at its 17th Annual General Meeting in Lagos, Chairman, Emmanuel Ikazoboh, said sustainability has become a core business strategy driving growth, competitiveness and long-term value creation across its African operations.

He disclosed that the company has approved a new decarbonisation roadmap, including migrating virtually its entire Nigerian truck fleet to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) by 2027, excluding the Gboko plant, while electric trucks will be introduced from 2026.

Ikazoboh also said the company is expanding port infrastructure at Apapa, Onne and Lekki to strengthen export capacity, while pursuing investments that will increase installed production capacity to 80mtpa by 2030, including new operations in Botswana and Zimbabwe.

On environmental performance, he said Dangote Cement has reduced CO‚  emissions intensity by 6.5 per cent from its 2021 baseline, cut energy intensity by 1.7 per cent, lowered overall energy consumption by four per cent and reduced water use by eight per cent through increased deployment of alternative fuels, energy-efficient technologies and lower clinker production.

According to him, the company also co-processed over 437,000 tonnes of waste as alternative fuel, reducing dependence on fossil fuels and improving resource efficiency.

Ikazoboh added that Dangote Cement created 625 direct green jobs during the year, increased social investment spending by 56 per cent, raised graduate trainee recruitment by 74 per cent and invested N2.1 billion in employee training.

He said the company also strengthened its ESG framework with new Artificial Intelligence Risk Management, Biodiversity and Disability Inclusion policies, while integrating 297 local vendors into its ESG-focused supply chain programme, positioning it for sustainable growth and supporting Africa’s low-carbon industrial transition.

By Progress Godfrey 

Galaxy Backbone (GBB) has intensified its engagement with banks, fintech firms, and other financial institutions as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) moves to enforce the local storage of payment transaction data.

The digital infrastructure and shared services provider, in a statement yesterday, brought together Chief Information Officers, fintech leaders, and technology stakeholders at its second-quarter webinar to discuss digital trust, regulatory compliance, and resilient infrastructure for the financial sector.

The webinar followed the CBN’s directive to banks, fintech companies, mobile money operators and other payment service providers to store payment transaction data generated in Nigeria on local servers to strengthen regulatory oversight, improve transparency and ensure critical financial data remains within the country.

The company highlighted its comprehensive digital infrastructure, saying, “Galaxy Backbone’s value proposition is further strengthened by its Uptime certified Data Centres, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) certification, sovereign cloud platform and nationwide fibre infrastructure.’

“Together, these capabilities provide banks, fintechs and payment service providers with trusted platforms for secure data hosting, payment security, regulatory compliance, business continuity and disaster recovery.

“They also support the growing need for data sovereignty by ensuring that critical financial data is securely hosted, readily accessible and remains within Nigeria’s jurisdiction in line with regulatory expectations,” it added.

Opening the webinar, Executive Director, Finance, Ibrahim Sani, said Nigeria’s financial sector was evolving rapidly, making trusted digital infrastructure essential for secure and reliable financial services.  

He noted that GBB already provides secure connectivity, cloud and data centre services to several public and private sector institutions, including financial organisations.

GBB’s Head of Automation and Integration, Thomas Oghenebhumhe, also highlighted the role of the company’s sovereign cloud in helping financial institutions improve efficiency, protect sensitive information and meet regulatory requirements.

Head of Data Centre Operations, Samuel Olusola Oyeleke, said Galaxy Backbone’s globally certified Tier III and Tier IV data centres provide the resilience, reliability and high availability needed to support uninterrupted digital services, disaster recovery and business continuity for critical financial operations. 

He said the infrastructure is designed to help financial institutions maintain continuous operations while meeting growing regulatory and operational demands.

By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

The Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Omolola Oloworaran, has said the proposed Pension Industry Infrastructure Fund is in the final stages of implementation as part of efforts to channel a portion of the industry’s over N32 trillion assets into infrastructure and the capital market.

She said: “The pension industry infrastructure fund is now in advanced stages for implementation. We already have a framework which has been deliberated upon, and we will go back and review it.”

According to her, “We also considered initiatives aimed at strengthening the industry’s participation in the capital market. The pension fund industry has probably the largest pool of passive, long-term capital in the country, so we need to be more engaged. The PFAs will return to their boards and stakeholders, and within the next one or two months we should be able to take a position on how to proceed.”

On contributors’ welfare, she said: “One of the key objectives we want to achieve is improving retirement outcomes for retirees. We continue to examine initiatives, both locally and globally, that can help us put more money in the hands of ordinary Nigerians while also improving pension literacy and awareness.”

Announcing the maiden National Pension Week, Oloworaran said: “It will hold from September 15 to 19. The initiative is designed to draw attention to the pension industry, bring stakeholders together, improve accountability and transparency, deepen pension literacy, and drive the Personal Pension Plan.”

On expanding pension coverage, she said: “Our target is to enrol one million market women under the Personal Pension Plan, but we are still far from that goal. We are engaging market women associations, the National Union of Road Transport Workers and other groups across the country. We have not reached our target yet, but it is work in progress, and we are getting there.”