When it comes on-stream in 18 months’ time, the new 2Mta Dangote cement plant at Mtwara is expected to reduce the cement deficit in Tanzania. Since 2011, the country’s cement deficit has exceeded 1Mt, according to the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC). The TIC's acting executive director Raymond Mbilinyi said that in few years the country will no longer experience such deficit due to the establishment of the new cement plant in Mtwara.

Mbilinyi said that the investment will also create over 400 jobs and help boost the southern region's economy and the whole country at large.

"Apart from creating employment, the factory will stimulate trade and create a multiplier rippling effect to the entire economy," Mbilinyi said and added that the conducive investment climate created by the government in collaboration with the private sector is fuelling Tanzanian development.