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The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Kayode Fayemi, has commended Dangote Cement for helping Nigeria attain self-sufficiency in cement production, according to a statement released by the cement manufacturer on Monday.

Fayemi made his comments while leading a federal government delegation to the Dangote Cement plants in Ibese, Ogun State, at the weekend. The minister said Dangote Cement played a leadership role in executing the federal government’s backward integration policy in the cement industry.

“What Dangote is doing is marvelous. We need to commend them,” Fayemi said. “The way they led the backward integration policy to turn around our fortunes in the cement industry. I am delighted to see the development here bigger than what I saw the last time. And we are looking at how we can replicate the successes in the cement industry in other non-oil sectors of our economy.”

Last month, Dangote Cement announced that it exported 400,000 tonnes of cement from Nigeria to neighbouring countries in 2016, which effectively transformed the country from one of the world’s largest importer of cement to a net exporter in less than six years.

The company also announced that its revenue rose by 25 percent to N615.1 billion while after-tax profit rose by 2.9 percent to N186.62 billion despite the impact of Nigeria’s economic challenges on consumer spending.

Nigeria’s total cement demand was estimated at 21 million tonnes in 2014, with Dangote Cement accounting for up to 15 million tonnes of total consumer spending on cement.

In addition to commending Dangote Cement for its mining operations, Fayemi also praised the company for running its plants in an environmentally friendly manner.

“We need to collaborate and partner in these areas at this time that government is trying to reduce the dependence on oil,” the minister said. “We need to turn around our mineral resources just as what is obtained in the cement sector. When you look at our solid mineral industry, there is a wide gap between what we can produce and what is consumed, importation in these sector is huge.”

Despite being endowed with about 44 solid minerals, Nigeria’s mining industry accounts for only 0.3 percent of the country’s GDP. Last year, Fayemi announced that the federal government planned to raise $7 billion to invest in Nigeria’s mining sector, targeting minerals such as iron ore, lead, zinc, bitumen, nickel, coal, and gold.