African richest man, Dangote to commission $500 mln cement plant in Congo this week

African richest man, Aliko Dangote is poised to commission the Congo plants of its cement factory this week in his bid to expand production capacity and increase its share of the commodity market in the continent. 
The plan, with a capacity of 1.5 million metric tonnes per annum is valued at $500 million, according to a statement by Dangote Cement Plc.
The plant, described as the largest in Congo, rolled out its first bag of cement on August 7, and is expected to create about 1000 direct and indirect jobs.
The statement noted that the Congo Plant will be the 10th of such in operation by the company across Africa.
It said that Dangote Cement maintained its stronghold in the domestic cement market accounting for 65 percent of local cement market while Pan-African volumes went up by 7.5 percent to 7.0 mta“We are consolidating our success across Africa through commissioning of our 1.5Mta factory in Congo, the tenth country in which we have established operations.
“In our key operations in Nigeria, we have significantly improved our fuel mix and this has helped increase margins across the Group.
“It is especially good for Nigeria because most of the coal we are using is mined in our own country,” it said.
It attributed sales increase to strong brand recognition, increased point of sales branding, improvements in sales and marketing strategies and higher visibility through trade shows.