• Dangote Cement signs $1 billion plant construction deal with China’s Sinoma

• Investment targets new lines in Nigeria, Ethiopia and possible Cameroon project

• Cameroon cement market crowded; government suspects price-fixing keeping prices high

Dangote Cement, the pan-African cement producer controlled by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, has signed a $1 billion contract with Chinese firm Sinoma Engineering, according to an official statement. The deal covers the construction of new cement plants and the modernization of existing facilities across seven African countries, including Cameroon, Ethiopia and Nigeria. Dangote Cement said new production lines will be built in Nigeria and Ethiopia but did not specify what form the planned investment in Cameroon would take.

Two options are being considered for Cameroon: expanding the existing Dangote Cement plant in Douala, which has a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per year, or reviving a long-dormant project to build a second facility of the same capacity in Nomayos, on the outskirts of Yaoundé. That project has been on hold for more than a decade.

Plans for the Nomayos plant date back to 2015. A month before the inauguration of the Douala plant on Aug. 27, 2015, Aliko Dangote met then-Prime Minister Philémon Yang on July 2, where he announced plans to build a second plant in Nomayos with a production capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per year.

A site was later secured for the project, which was estimated to cost 88 billion CFA francs and was expected to be completed within 20 months. From Feb. 4 to 9, 2019, residents of Ngoumou and Mbankomo, in the Centre region, attended public hearings on the project's environmental and social impact assessment. In 2024, according to sources within the company, Dangote obtained government clearance to proceed with construction of the second plant in Cameroon.

No further information on the project's progress has emerged since. The new contract awarded to Sinoma Engineering could nonetheless help revive the project, even as Dangote Cement remains silent on the option it has chosen for Cameroon.

Suspicions of price-fixing

Whichever option is adopted, a new Dangote investment would add to an already crowded cement market. Since 2015, the entry of the Nigerian group ended the 48-year monopoly held by Cimenteries du Cameroun (Cimencam), a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim Maroc Afrique.

Several other players have since entered the market, including Cimaf, Medcem, Mira Company, Cimpor, Central Africa Cement, Sinafcam Sarl and Yousheng Cement. They are soon expected to be joined by Société de ciment du Cameroun, backed by Ivorian billionaire Koné Dossongui. National production capacity now approaches 12 million tonnes, compared with demand that was estimated until recently at around 8 million tonnes.

Despite this overcapacity, the price of a 50-kg bag of cement remains high, ranging between 5,100 and 5,300 CFA francs in Douala and Yaoundé. Producers and the government point to the cost of importing clinker, a key input in cement manufacturing. Commerce Minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana has repeatedly raised suspicions of illegal price-fixing among producers.

Brice R. Mbodiam, with Business in Cameroon