By Our Correspondent<\/p>\n
The Senate, on Thursday at plenary approved the sale of Lafarge Cement Plc to Hainan Huaxin Pan-African Investment Company Plc, saying the transaction poses no immediate national security risk to Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The approval followed the adoption of the report of the Senate Ad hoc Committee on the sale of Lafarge, presented by Chairman and Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Abba Moro (Benue South).<\/p>\n
Moro said the committee found no security threat in the deal and urged all relevant regulatory agencies to maintain strict oversight to ensure compliance with Nigerian laws.<\/p>\n
The Committee recommended that the parties must comply with due process and \u201call Nigerian extant laws on the subject\u201d in finalising the transaction.<\/p>\n
Recall that the Senate Committee on Capital Market had probed the sale in December 2025 over concerns about Lafarge\u2019s ownership structure and Nigeria\u2019s stake in the company.<\/p>\n
An adhoc committee chaired by Moro was later set up to conduct a deeper review of the process.<\/p>\n
According to the report approved on Thursday, much of the controversy surrounding the sale arose from a misconception that Lafarge was wholly owned by Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The committee clarified that the transaction is a transfer from one foreign ownership to another, as Lafarge itself is a foreign firm selling to Huaxin.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs such, this transaction will not affect the investment of Nigerian public investors in the company,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n
It added that the integration of foreign investment through the deal was \u201can economic necessity and strategic initiative that aligns with national development goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The committee also confirmed that key regulatory bodies including the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, and the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, had reviewed the transaction for compliance.<\/p>\n
It further disclosed that the 16.19 per cent shares held by Nigerians in Lafarge remained intact despite the change in ownership.<\/p>\n
The report noted that concerns over foreign dominance in the cement sector were unfounded, as Lafarge currently holds only about 18 per cent of the market share.<\/p>\n
Deputy Senate President, Sen. Jibrin Barau, who presided, commended the committee for a \u201ccomprehensive and well-articulated\u201d report that clarified all issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe information is well put together and well understood. This matter has now been put to rest,\u201d Barau said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Our Correspondent The Senate, on Thursday at plenary approved the sale of Lafarge Cement Plc to Hainan Huaxin Pan-African Investment Company Plc, saying the transaction poses no immediate national security risk to Nigeria. The approval followed the adoption of the report of the Senate Ad hoc Committee on the sale of Lafarge, presented by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15384,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15383\/revisions\/15384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}