Aliko Dangote has commissioned a US$500mn cement plant in Ethiopia, with a capacity of 2.5mn metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa)
The plant is located in Mugher, an industrial hub in the Ethiopia, about 80 km from Addis Ababa.
The Ethiopian plant is expected to produce 2.5 million tonnes (MT) a year to keep up with the national market, as a construction boom in the country has led to a shortage of cement, said Forbes. However, owner Aliko Dangote revealed that the plant will double its production in the near future, produce a 42.5 cement grade and create around 7,000 jobs.
At the inauguration of the cement plant, Dangote said that his company was keen on building more cement plants in Africa, in a bid to achieve an annual production of 62 MT by 2017. Currently, all of Dangote Cement’s production units make 40 MT annually. The cement company has already set up factories across Africa, such as in Tanzania and Zambia.
