Aliko Dangote, the Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria’s biggest manufacturing conglomerate, The Dangote Group, has announced plans to complete five cement plants across Africa before the end of 2014.
Dangote was quoted in the local media Monday as telling a group of African businessmen – on a visit to his office in the commercial city of Lagos over the weekend – that when completed, the plants, which are at various stages of construction, would add about 13.5 million metric tonnes (mmt) of cement yearly to the continent’s existing capacity.
The plants are in Zambia (1.5 million metric tonnes per annual (mmtpa); Tanzania (1.5 mmtpa); South Africa (3mmtpa); Republic of Congo (1.5mmtpa) and Gabon (1.5mmtpa).
In Nigeria, the Dangote Cement, a subsidiary of the conglomerate, is already working on adding the third and fourth production lines to the existing six mmtpa in Ibese, South-west Ogun state, to bring the total capacity to 12mmtpa, and another 3mmtpa line is being added to the Obajana cement plant in the North-central state of Kogi.
According to him, there is the need to scale up investments across Africa in the real sector,
“This, indeed, shows that Africa is gradually taking its destiny in its own hands rather than waiting for investors from outside Africa. Investment in the real sector of the economy is the only way that our continent can achieve the much-desired accelerated growth and development that we have yearned for,” he said.
