TheCable

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has signed a deal with Chinese Sinoma International Engineering to build cement plants in 10 African countries and Nepal.

Dangote, who recently commissioned his cement factory in Zambia, revealed his aspiration to produce about 100 million tonnes of cement by 2020.

Speaking in Lagos at the deal signing event, he added that his tentacles would be spreading to Nepal, which is recently suffered a terrible earthquake.

“We are not only building cement plants in Africa, we have gone far away to Nepal to build a three million metric tonnes cement plant capacity,” he said.

“By the time all these new projects are completed in the next two years, Dangote Cement will have more than 70 million [tonnes] capacity. But we are not going to stop there, hopefully, by 2020, our target is getting to somewhere around 100 million tonnes capacity.”

He said Africa would no longer lack cement again and rather than being seen as a dumping ground, Africa would become self-sufficient.

“I can assure you categorically that Africa will not lack cement now and even in the future. Africa will be self-sufficient rather than be a dumping ground for other manufacturers of cement.”

The Dangote-Sinoma deal will see to the construction of factories in Nepal, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, Senegal, Niger, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.

Dangote group is expected to inaugurate its new plant in Cameroun on Thursday, with eyes on a total capacity of 1.5 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa).

The group currently produces a total capacity of 48mmtpa, with about 29.3mmtpa coming out of Nigeria.