After recording profit for three consecutive years, Rwanda’s largest cement manufacturer, CIMERWA Plc is seeking authorisation to pay dividends to its shareholders. According to Regis Rugemanshuro, the board chairman, the firm is on course to record more than Rwf8 billion profit in 2022, following two profitable years. This will be the third time the company is recording a profit. It registered Rwf4.2 billion profit in 2021, and just more than a billion the previous year. “We have requested the Ministry of Finance and the Prime Minister to allow us, for the first time since we were listed (on Rwanda Stock Exchange), to pay dividends to shareholders,” Rugemanshuro said. He disclosed the developments during a town hall meeting that was held in Rusizi District where the plant is located. The cement manufacturer floated 100 per cent of its shares constituting 703,219,520 shares on Rwanda Stock Exchange in 2020. Of these, 49 per cent was available for trading through free float. Albert Sigei, Chief Executive of CIMERWA recently told The New Times that they saw great performance in the first six months of the year and the main drivers include; improvement in plant operating efficiency and also some projects that allowed them to open up additional air capacity organically within the factory. It is one of the companies that have benefited from major construction projects in the country that include the Bugesera International Airport and the construction of Amahoro Stadium. During the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a deliberate effort to increase the number of classrooms, a move which saw the suppliers of cement benefit. Consequently, in the first half of 2022, it sold more than 275,000 tonnes while in 2021, it sold 520,000 tonnes, however, it’s yet to meet its full potential as it has a production capacity of 600,000 tonnes. According to Sigei, 80 percent of production serves the domestic market while 20 percent is exported. Efforts to get more details on the sharing of dividends from the company’s executives were futile by press time.
