Dangote cement plant cost 80 billion FCFA instead of 50 billion FCFA

Initially budgeted at 50 billion FCFA, the cement factory of the Nigerian Dangote group will ultimately cost some 80 billion FCFA, an increase of 30 billion FCFA.

The information was revealed by Abdulahi Baba, the Director General of Dangote Cement Cameroon in his welcome speech delivered at the esplanade of the Dangote cement.

This was during the opening ceremony of the cement industry in Douala on Thursday, August 27, 2015, under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister head of Government Philemon Yang.

The company owned by the Nigerian Aliko Dangote becomes the fourth cement plant in Cameroon, just ahead of Turkey which plans to open another, except for any constraint, in the first week of September.

Started in 2011(four years ago), the construction work of this cement plant have experienced various phases of unrest, due to the refusal of the Aboriginal to release the targeted site used once per year for the largest traditional festival Sawa: the Ngondo. But ultimately it was the head of State, Paul Biya, who demanded that the Dangote Cement factory in Cameroon be maintained on the banks of the Wouri, at the place called Elf base.

Beside the plant built in the strict compliance with international standards like all the other cement plant of the group in Africa or even the future biggest cement plant in the continent under construction in Nigeria, the Dangote Group is constructing around it, a wharf for berthing to take delivery of the clinker, the main raw material used in the composition of the cement and many other products.

The inauguration of the Dangote Cement Cameroon factory on Thursday, August 27, 2015 came when Cameroonian consumers are being supplied with Dangote cement bags for the first quarter of the current year. With production expected at 950 000 tonnes in 2015, the company intends to exceed 1 million tons in 2016, and conquer 30% of the national market.

By then, the construction site of the second group of Dangote cement in Cameroon will be evident. It is a project on the construction of a second plant still in Douala, with an estimated total cost of $ USD 150 million. It was announced on July 2 at the hearing granted to the billionaire, Aliko Dango, by Prime Minister Philemon Yang.

The local production of four cement plants currently in operation in Cameroon was 5.2 million tonnes in 2014 according to the Ministry of Commerce (Mincommerce) and the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development (Minmidt), while demand is close to 9 million of 3.8 million tonnes that remain to be filled. Hence, there is still a place to invest in this highly lucrative sector.