About a week ago, Dangote commissioned a cement factory in Okpella, Edo state, worth $1bn. This ground breaking celebration was also used to mark the 59th birthday of the Africa’s Richest Man and President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote.
To many industry watchers, this announcement didn’t come as a surprise as Dangote has continued to show his plans to expand across several African countries by 2019.
However, prior to the inauguration of the Okpella cement factory, it was announced that Dangote commenced the construction of a 3 Million Metric Tonnes Per Annum (MMTPA) grinding plant in Ivory Coast.
Currently, Dangote Cement Plc is present in almost all the regions in Africa that are rich in limestone deposits, which is an essential component for the production of cement. In just 10 years, Dangote has established cement plants of over 43 MMTPA capacity across sub-Saharan Africa, while being fully operational in about seven African countries. Dangote’s ambitious strategy for Africa, where the company is now targeting a total capacity of 75 MMTPA by 2019 could see Dangote become the ‘king of cement production’ in Africa. This is due to the fact that there is currently no other cement producing company that has its foot prints across Africa with a capacity higher than Dangote Cement Plc. Dangote Cement in Nigeria controls about 65 percent of the market and over 30 percent of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. According to Dangote, the group’s cement production had surpassed Nigeria’s average total consumption of 20 million metric tonnes.
In terms of market capitalization, Dangote Cement is competing on almost the same level as Holcim-LaFarge cement, the world’s largest cement producer. The problem with producing so much cement, however, is finding customers to buy it and the future of Holcim-LaFarge is hugely dependent on finding a foothold in developing economies, particularly in Africa which Dangote has already done.
Here is what you didn’t know about some Dangote Cement plants in Africa:
Nigeria
In Nigeria, Dangote Cement’s current production capacity from its three existing plants is about 29.25 MMTPA. The Largest is the Obajana Cement Plant (OCP) located in Kogi State. It is reputed to be one of the single largest cement plants in the world with a combined capacity of 10.25 MMTPA. A fourth line of 3.0 MMTPA has also been added to the existing capacity bringing the total capacity of Obajana to 13.25 MMTPA. This is followed by the Ibese plant which produces 6.0 MMTPA and the 4.0 MMTPA Gboko plant which is located in Benue state. Dangote Cement is also the biggest quoted company in West Africa and the only Nigerian company on the Forbes Global 2000 Companies. In 2013, a Renaissance Capital research credited Dangote Cement as a major force behind Nigeria’s feat in overtaking South Africa as the biggest cement manufacturer in sub-Saharan Africa.
Senegal
In 2015, Dangote Cement Plc rolled out products from its $300 million Cement Plant in the Pout district of Senegal, about 75 kilometres east of Dakar. This cement plant is said to be the single largest investment in Senegal by an African. The plant, with a total production capacity of 1.5 million tonnes annually, has a nominal capacity to produce 4,000 metric tonnes per day. Dangote Cement Senegal is said to be the only 42.5 grade high quality cement available in the Senegalese market, which is better than the 32.5 grade that they had previously.
Tanzania
The Dangote Cement Plc has commissioned its new 3 Million Metric Tonnes Per Annum cement plant located in the Mtwara District of Tanzania. The new plant, which is part of the company’s Africa expansion strategy, is the fourth to be commissioned after those in Ethiopia, Zambia and the Cameroon. The $600 million cement plant, has an installed capacity of 3 MMTPA
Zambia
Dangote has commissioned a US$400mn 1.5 MTA Dangote Cement plant in Masaiti on the Zambian Copperbelt and it is also building another US$420mn cement plant in Zambia at Chilanga, near Lusaka.
It has an operational capacity of 2.7 MTA in South Africa, 1.5 MTA in Cameroon, 2.5 MTA in Ethiopia and 1 MTA import facility in Ghana. The company is also building plants in Republic of Congo, Kenya, Nepal and Zimbabwe. They are also making plants to build import or grinding facilities of 0.7 MTA in Sierra Leone and 0.7 MTA in Liberia.
