Nigeria’s largest cement producer, Dangote has announced a 35 million dollar expansion programme in Ghana as part of initiatives to meet local demand.
The company will over the next three months expand its Tema factory which will see it producing 1.5 million tonnes of cement annually. As part of the expansion plans, Dangote has also acquired a 41 acre land at Takoradi in the Western Region to set up a plant which would further produce 3 million tonnes of cement annually. The grinding and bagging plant is expected to take 4 years to complete.
Briefing the press in Accra, Executive Vice-Chairman of the Dangote subsidiary in Ghana, Tajudeen Sijuade said the rationale behind the expansion programme was to meet the supply gap on the market.
“When we start production, we are still going to maintain our quality. When the expansion work is completed, the Tema plant will employ 500 more people and the Takoradi plant will create about 1,200 jobs,” he noted.
Currently, the total production of cement in Ghana stands at 7 million metric tonnes per annum. Dangote Cement has about 11 percent of the market share but is projecting a 30 percent market share in the next three years. Ghacem leads the pack with 58 percent of the market share while Diamond Cement comes second at 25 percent.
