Zambia: Dangote to commission $400 million cement plant this month

The Dangote Group has revealed that the US$400 million cement plant in Masaiti district, in the Zambian Copperbelt will be commissioned by the end this month.

According to the founder and chairman of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, the commissioning of the cement plant had been delayed due to flooding, coupled with the delay in getting the required permits from the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA).

“Hopefully, we will start production in the next 2 – 3 weeks. The rainy season this year has been very intense which has given us a lesson to protect ourselves next time we are in operations. So by and large, we are working and the team will try and deliver the factory by the end of this month, our power is already on so we are making good progress,” Dangote said.

He added that there has been good progress made on a second cement plant to be constructed in the town of Chilanga. He noted that the required permits had already been granted to get into the land and start mining, and that it would be identical in capacity to the one in Masaiti district.

The commissioning of the new cement plant is expected to create a substantial number of jobs which will impact positively in the local economy.

The Dangote Group will end up investing US$900 million into the Zambian economy which as Dangote says “it’s worth it, because we are all Africans”