A groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a new cement plant has been held as part of celebrations to mark Aliko Dangote’s 59th birthday.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the new plant, in Okpella in southern Nigeria, is projected to cost US$1bn and will have a capacity of 6Mta. In its 2015 annual report Dangote Cement said that the new plant would be half this size, with a still-considerable capacity of 3Mta.
The increased capacity plans at Opkella reflect Dangote’s confidence about the state of the Nigerian cement market and that of the wider west Africa region. Nigeria’s This Day newspaper reports Mr Dangote as saying that the new plants at Opkella and Itori would increase his firm’s production capacity to 41Mta in Nigeria alone.
Construction of the Opkella plan is expected to take around 26 months, coming online in mid-2018.
Dangote is also expanding elsewhere in West Africa. This month has seen the commencement of work on a 3Mta grinding plant in Côte d’Ivoire. This plant, situated in Yongbon will take 18 months to construct at a cost of US$200m.
