Africa’s richest man, Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has said he will invest $400 million to build a cement plant in Kenya., the Daily Nation has reported.
Dangote said that his Lagos-listed cement company, Dangote Cement, would start construction of a 2 million tonne-capacity cement factory within the next few months.
Dangote Cement is the largest cement manufacturer in Africa, with operations in nine African countries, including a plant in East Africa located at Mtwara, Tanzania.
“We have realised that if we really want to do something big in East Africa, we must operate in Kenya. We believe that in the next two and half years, we will be the dominant player in cement in Kenya,” Dangote reportedly said.
Dangote Cement may be the dominant player in the next three years, but it will not be an easy ride as the company will have to contend with Kenyan companies Bamburi Cement and Athi River Mining, the two biggest cement manufacturing companies in East Africa.
Aliko Dangote is Africa’s richest man and was ranked 43rd on Forbes 2013 fortune pegged at $16.1 billion in March, though his fortune, which mostly lies in Dangote Cement stock, has ballooned to nearly $20 billion in the last few weeks.
