Dangote Cement, the cement producer controlled byAliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has commissioned a $500 million cement plant in Ethiopia.
The cement plant which has an installed capacity of 2.5 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) was inaugurated on Thursday at a ceremony in Addis Ababa that was attended by several Nigerian business leaders and government officials from Ethiopia led by the Ethiopia Prime Minister Haile Mariam Desalegne. The plant is located in Mugher, an industrial hub in Ethiopia’s western district, about 80 kilometers from Addis Ababa.
Aliko Dangote told guests during the event that his company is looking to build more cement plants across Africa to actualize its ambition of reaching an annual production of 62 million tonnes by 2017. The company currently produces more than 40 million tonnes annually.
The Ethiopian plant will initially produce 2.5 million metric tonnes a year to keep up with Ethiopia’s market, as a construction boom in the country has led to a shortage of cement. But Dangote told guests his company plans to double its production in the near future. The plant will produce 42.5 cement grade and will create about 7,000 jobs.
Business magnate man Aliko Dangote, ranked by Forbes Magazine as the richest man in Africa, speaks during a send off ceremony for 250 Nigerian health workers on a mission to fight Ebola virus in affected West African countries and the launch of African initiative operating under the hash tag #AfricaAgainstEbola in Lagos, on December 3, 2014. Two hundred and fifty volunteer Nigerian medical corps under the auspices of the African Union Support to Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA) were given a send off to fight Ebola Virus Diseases in the affected three West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The African Union, which is collaborating with the private sector to raise funds to support and strengthen the Unions response to the crises, is sending more than 1000 health workers before Christmas. AFP PHOTO/PIUS UTOMI EKPEI (Photo credit should read PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images)
Apart from its plants in Nigeria, Dangote Cement has factories in South Africa, Senegal, Zambia and Tanzania. It is currently building a $400 million factory in Kenya.
Aliko Dangote is Africa’s richest man with a fortune estimated at $17.8 billion according to FORBES.
