Dangote’s Ambitious Cement Plants for Africa

Fri, Jan 10, 2014
By publisher
3 MIN READ

BREAKING NEWS, Business

Dangote’s Cement Company begins to actualise its plan to extend its operations to 13 African countries, starting with Zambia and Kenya

|  By Chinwe Okafor  |  Jan. 20, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT

DANGOTE Group is set to commission a cement processing factory in Zambia. The cement factory estimated at $400 million will be completed in February this year. The Group has also concluded the necessary arrangements to invest $400 million in cement production in Kenya, within the next two years. The company recently announced an investment of more than $2.5 billion to build manufacturing plants and import terminals across Africa. There are also plans for establishing integrated or grinding plants in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, as well as import and packing facilities in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Sifawu Momoh, Nigerian High Commissioner to Zambia, said the the federal government supported the Dangote group to establish the cement factory in the country to strengthen economic ties between Nigeria and Zambia. When fully operational, the cement factory is expected to give direct employment to hundreds of Zambian citizens and boost the nation’s economy. The higher commissioner, who said Nigeria had a lot to learn from Zambia, in areas of agriculture and tourism disclosed that both countries had been discussing ways of sustaining and increasing direct investments. Investors from both countries are expected to meet soon to share ideas on how to bring development to their respective countries.

President Jonathan
Jonathan

The Dangote Group had early last year, announced its plans to increase the production of cement in Nigeria by mid-2014, by establishing two additional plants that would produce about 10 million tonnes annually. Aliko Dangote, chairman of the group, said the plants would boost production and bring the present capacity to 38 million tonnes yearly. The group also plans to invest $4.7 billion in the next four years to ensure that cement supply stays ahead of demand.

According to Dangote, Nigeria, has for the first time in its history, began to export cement to neighbouring countries and at the same time stabilised retail prices of the product in the past five years.  “Nigeria has moved from being one of the largest cement importers in the world to a position of self-sufficiency in cement production,” he said.

The Dangote Group established its first largest cement factory in Sub-Saharan Africa at Ibese, Ogun State, in 2012. President Goodluck Jonathan while inaugurating the one billion dollar cement plant, commended Dangote for his commitment to the industrialisation of the country and for providing employment opportunities, saying that Nigeria would soon be a major exporter of cement with the many plants coming on. The $1bn plant has modern facilities with an installed capacity of six million metric tonnes of cement per annum. “The plant consists of two production lines of three million metric tonnes per annum each. We project that the plant will create jobs for about 7,000 Nigerians and will, in addition, substantially boost the supply of cement in the Nigerian market,” Dangote said.

Dangote Cement Plc is a publicly traded company based in Nigeria. A subsidiary of the Dangote Group, it is the largest company traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. In 2013, Dangote Cement had a market capitalisation of $15 billion while in 2012; the company produced around 10 million metric tonnes of cement, with revenues of $1.8 billion. Dangote Cement is Nigeria’s largest cement producer with three plants in Nigeria.

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