Dangote Cement’s New Ivory Coast Plant to Produce 3m Tons Per Year

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Africa’s biggest cement producer plans to open a new plant in Ivory Coast to capitalise on a construction boom in one of the continent’s fastest-growing economies, Bloomberg reported yesterday.

The 3 million-metric-ton-per-year plant, which will boost Dangote Cement Plc’s total capacity to 55 million metric tons, is nearly complete and set to begin production this year, a company spokesman said.

Ivory Coast’s construction market is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 9.6 per cent between 2025 and 2032, according to Data Bridge Market Research. The West African nation’s infrastructure investments include energy and logistic projects.

Ivory Coast will be the 10th country where Dangote Cement operates outside its home market of Nigeria, the Bloomberg report added.

The company, owned by Africa’s richest person, Aliko Dangote, has made Nigeria self-sufficient in cement production and exports clinker — an intermediate product in the production of cement — to countries across the continent.

It’s looking to open a six-million-ton capacity plant in Itori, southwest Nigeria in 2027 and raise $400 million in the Ethiopian financial market to expand a second production line in the Horn of Africa nation, Acting Chief Financial Officer, Gbenga Fapohunda, said last week.

The firm’s closest rival in Nigeria, BUA Cement Plc, has a production capacity of 17 million tons per annum, Bloomberg noted.

The cement maker had long been the foundation of Dangote’s business empire and wealth, until he built a 650,000-barrels-a-day oil refinery outside Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, which became operational last year.

Dangote’s wealth is valued at $28.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.