Obajana Cement Factory for Commissioning April
The state-of-the-art cement factory constructed by the Dangote Industries Limited will be ready for commissioning in April this year Business Trust learnt.
The plant will have the capacity to produce 4.4Mt of cement per year and will include a 135 mega watt gas fired power plant.
Located at Obajana, Kogi state, the plant is a multi-billion naira project which has in the last four years consumed about $950m (about N110bn ).
Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the company, told newsmen and stockbrokers on facility tour of the plant recently that the demand for cement at 11.5 million tonnes had continued to outgrow national production currently at three million tonnes.
He said the demand for cement might go up as a result of the expected boom in the mortgage business, noting that the group decided to embark on the cement factory project in order to save the nation approximately $380 million in foreign exchange annually from cement imports.
He explained that the factory would save huge bills, pointing out that it costs less to produce cement locally compared to the high import freight paid to import the product.
He said the initial production target of the Obajana factory would be 5Mt but that if the group invests well, it would produce 7.5Mt at the rate of 750-800 trucks per day.
International Finance Corporation in June 2005 provided $75m of loan to support the construction of the plant.
Published under Cement News
