Lolu Alade-Akinyemi: Finance Taught Me The Discipline of Performance Management

Lolu Alade-Akinyemi, a certified accountant and an Economics graduate from the University of Essex is the first Nigerian Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (GMD/CEO) of Lafarge Africa Plc over 25 years. Before his present position, Alade-Akinyemi was the CFO and supply chain director. He tells Bennett Oghifo this was one of several positions that prepared him for the highly elevated position of CEO. He loves volunteering to serve in positions where there are challenges, and has a great desire to impact society, positively, and elevate mankind in his environment.

His leadership journey and how it has shaped his vision for Lafarge Africa

I would say that I’ve always wanted to be in the leadership role.  I’ve always had an inclination for leadership right from when I was in high school. I really wanted to be successful. Then my passion for success transitioned from personal success, to purposefulness. If I reflect on the journey, the springboard was finance. Finance taught me the discipline of performance management and business analysis. I worked across different functions, including finance, sales, business, and procurement. In addition, I love volunteering. When there are issues I’m the first person to raise my hand to solve them. Of course, I knew I wanted to be a leader, but the journey has not been linear. I would say it’s a journey of continuous learning and intentionality. It doesn’t come by accident, it is important that you are clear about your strengths and you turn your strengths to assets. I’ve been very fortunate with people who have been instrumental in this journey. Firstly, my parents who have taught me selflessness, mentors and colleagues who have inspired me to go the extra mile. I have been the CEO for over a year and it has been an exciting journey, challenging sometimes, but it’s centered on purposefulness.

Talking about challenges, what did you meet on ground?

It’s been exciting but challenging particularly in the current macro-economic situation we are faced with. As a leader you have to continue to inspire your team to remain focused in the midst of all the distractions, capture opportunities, identify risks, and continue to deliver value to all stakeholders.

Can you give us a specific Scenario, something that you met on ground that you are changing or working on?

It’s about creating an enabling environment for innovation to thrive. It’s about getting rid of bureaucracy for the team to feel safe to share their ideas.  It is called psychological safety and all ideas are welcome. But there has to be a structure in place, even ideas at the early stage can be captured. We developed an innovation hub, revamped our reward and recognition system beyond monetary rewards and made it clear that everybody matters including employees, customers and stakeholders. We are very proud of the outcome of these changes. Today, we have launched two new revolutionary products – Watershield and Unicem Ecoplanet that are changing the construction industry.  We automate a lot of our processes to deliver value to our employees and customers. 

Tell us about the two innovations, Watershield Cement and the Ecoplanet Cement

We believe that Watershield cement is one of the things that will revolutionise the construction industry. It is purposely developed for construction in areas that are susceptible to moisture and water exposure as it has superior water resistance. It’s a great product that has multipurpose uses – for plastering, for your concrete, for your foundation. For Unicem Ecoplanet, we launched it in July 2024.  It is the first low-carbon cement in Nigeria that offers 30% reduction of carbon construction versus your standard cement. As you know climate change is real, without any doubt. Evidence can be seen from the changes in temperature, the rains and the weather in general. So it’s something we have to take very seriously. For us at Lafarge, we need to continuously showcase proof points that underscore our commitment to our sustainability commitment. As leaders, we want to be ahead of the curve and truly demonstrate that we care about our environment.  We are very intentional about what we do with our processes and products, even to how we deliver our cement. We are replacing all our diesel trucks with CNG trucks. They are more environmentally friendly, we’re pushing a lot of our cement through rail, which is fantastic. For our operations in the depot, we have cancelled diesel generators in some of our depots to use solar energy. We also launched the first electric truck in Nigeria last year. These are some of the things that we’re very proud of and that we continue to innovate.

Share more on sustainability

We are clear on our sustainability strategy with the four key pillars of climate and energy, circular economy, nature and people. We are going the extra mile to decarbonize our operations and replace the use of fossil fuels with alternative fuels that are more environmentally friendly. We are also engaging state governments about how we can collaborate to use municipal solid waste, which is a common practice across the world especially in Europe. We are very proud of what we’ve been able to achieve. In some of our plants, we have replaced the usage of fossil fuels to alternative fuels by 45% and we are investing more across our plants to progress in this target. For logistics, we are replacing our diesel trucks to CNG and also moving cement by rail and waterways. We are reducing waste across our plants and driving opportunities on circular economy. On people, we care for our host communities. We have many initiatives including healthcare, shelter, education and so on and so forth. In education for instance, we are improving the lives of our community members to ensure that they can contribute their quota to the economy.

So what projects are you looking at in the future?

Many projects. We are commissioning the alternative fuel feeding system in our Mfamosing Plant in Calabar. We should commission this before the end of this year and we have so many other projects in the pipeline.

What trends do you think will drive the cement industry?

The outlook for the cement industry in Nigeria is positive. Cement consumption per capita in Nigeria is among the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa and even in Africa. We have a huge infrastructural gap and a significant housing deficit. Additionally, cement is being seriously considered for concrete roads across the country. We believe that the cement industry has a significant role to play in Nigeria’s economic development, particularly in the areas of infrastructure, job creation and overall economic development. Beyond the demand of stakeholders to encourage responsible business will be a major trend. Particularly in the area of the impact of climate change and the need to decarbonize our operations. We are very committed to lead the transformation of the construction industry.

How does Lafarge differentiate itself from its competitors?

We have an array of product offerings including cement, mortar, readymix.  As a business, we anticipate the needs of our customers and add value to them, not just in the products but even in how we deliver our products to them. We also focus also on efficiency. Part of our vision is to drive innovation and this offers value to our stakeholders.