Dangote Plans $100m Factory in Cameroon

Posted by admin Headlines Thursday, January 13th, 2011

Dangote Group has disclosed plans to invest about N15.24 billion in building a new cement manufacturing factory in Cameroon.

The move, according to the company, was to ensure that African remained self-sufficient in cement production, and ensure that the products were easily available and affordable to the end users.

A statement by the group, made available to LEADERSHIP, confirmed that it had reached an agreement with Cameroonian officials to build a cement factory in the country even as it planned to expand to other sectors of the local economy.

President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, while confirming the development said: “We have reached an agreement with Cameroonian officials, if the cement business succeeds, our group will move into other domains of the Cameroonian industry.”

He noted that Cameroon had only one cement producing company, CIMENCAM, with an annual output of about a million tonnes from two plants, adding that the planned Dangote cement plant, when operational would increase the volume of cement produced in the country as well as force down prices.

The planned investment in Cameroun, LEADERSHIP learnt, is coming on the heels of the Investment, Promotion and Protection Agreement between Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) and the Government of Zambia.

The agreement marked a significant milestone in Dangote’s quest to establish a cement plant in that country. The value of the investment, it was gathered, was estimated at N60 billion.

The Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement is a requirement for all major investors in Zambia, which offers them additional incentives and safeguards on their investments in case of changes in legislation.

Dangote, at the occasion expressed delight that negotiations between both parties over the proposed investment had finally yielded fruits with the signing of the agreement, adding that the proposed cement plant in Zambia, with an installed capacity of 1.5 million metric tonnes per annum, would be up and running by June 2012.

He said the company’s choice of Zambia for this multi-million dollar investment was quite strategic, noting that the World Bank had in 2010 named Zambia as one of the world’s fastest economically reforming countries.

Citing a report by the McKinsey Global Institute issued in June 2010, which stated that Africa would require at least $46 billion in spending annually to meet infrastructural needs, Dangote said it had become quite obvious that African governments alone could not meet this demand.

“It is in this light that we have decided to invest in Zambia. We are motivated to create an African success story because we believe that entrepreneurship holds the key to the future economic growth of the continent. We are spurred on by the fact that the rate of return on foreign investment is higher in Africa than in any other developing region,” Dangote stated.wp_posts