Nigeria cement sector posts $554m Q1 2026 profit record

Nigeria’s three largest cement producers delivered their most profitable opening quarter on record in 2026, posting a combined N762.97 billion ($554 million at N1,375 to the dollar) in pre-tax profit for the three months ended March 31, a 57 percent jump on the N484.83 billion they reported in the same period a year earlier.

The result was driven by a combination of elevated cement prices, recovering volumes and falling finance costs, even as energy expenses rose and the sector braced for fresh cost pressures linked to higher global crude prices. A 50-kilogram bag of cement in Nigeria now costs between N12,500 and N14,000 depending on location, up from around N9,800 in December 2025, as infrastructure spending picked up and domestic demand strengthened.

Dangote Cement, Africa’s largest cement producer by installed capacity, led the field. The company posted Q1 2026 net profit of N321.1 billion ($233.5 million), a 54 percent jump on the N209.25 billion it earned in Q1 2025. Revenue rose 20 percent to N1.198 trillion ($871 million) from N994.66 billion a year earlier, with gross profit climbing to N749.3 billion from N587.3 billion. It was the most profitable opening quarter in the company’s history, extending a landmark 2025 full year in which Dangote Cement crossed the one-trillion-naira net profit threshold for the first time.

Chief Executive Arvind Pathak highlighted the company’s export expansion as a key growth driver. Export volumes from Nigeria climbed 71.6 percent in the quarter, with 10 clinker shipments completed. Dangote Cement commissioned a new 3 million-tonne-per-year grinding plant in Côte d’Ivoire in 2025 and has further expansion underway in Ethiopia, Itori and across other African markets, targeting 80 million tonnes of total production capacity by 2030.

BUA Cement, controlled by billionaire Abdulsamad Rabiu, delivered an even steeper rate of growth despite operating from a lower earnings base. The company posted Q1 2026 net profit of N176.38 billion ($128.3 million), more than double the N81.12 billion it earned in the same period last year, a gain of 117 percent. Revenue rose 22.1 percent to N354.98 billion from N290.82 billion, while pre-tax profit came in at N192.68 billion versus N99.74 billion a year earlier. A foreign exchange gain reversal contributed to the margin improvement, alongside near-flat production costs against rising revenues.

Lafarge Africa, the Nigerian unit of Swiss building materials giant Holcim, contributed the balance of the combined result. Combined revenues across the three companies reached approximately N1.89 trillion ($1.37 billion) in Q1 2026, a 26 percent increase on the prior year, according to sector analysis by TRW Stockbrokers. The research house noted that cement and telecoms together accounted for 29 percent of all corporate earnings on the Nigerian Exchange in the first quarter.

The sector faces a near-term test. With Brent crude rising above $107 a barrel in recent weeks, energy cost pressures are expected to reassert themselves through the second quarter. Both Dangote Cement and BUA Cement operate coal and gas-fired kilns whose economics are sensitive to fossil fuel price movements, and higher diesel and industrial gas costs typically compress margins within one to two quarters of an oil price spike.

Industry analysts projected Nigeria’s economy to expand around 4.4 percent in 2026, supported by the infrastructure spending programme that has kept cement demand robust since 2025. That macro backdrop, combined with the sector’s pricing power, has allowed all three producers to sustain margin discipline even as input costs have risen.