Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has signed a $4.3 billion deal with Sinoma International Engineering Co, a Chinese engineering company, to build factories for his cement company across Africa and Asia.

Aliko Dangote. © AFP
Aliko Dangote. © AFP

According to a report by Reuters, Sinoma, a state-owned company, will build 7 cement plants for Dangote Cement across Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia and Nepal. The new factories will be completed within 30 months and will add about 25 million tonnes to Dangote Cement’s current production capacity of 45 million tonnes.

Dangote Cement is the largest publicly traded company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange with a Market capitalization of $15 billion. Aliko Dangote, who is Africa’s richest man, is the controlling shareholder. Dangote has said in the past that he wants to produce 100 million tonnes of cement a year by 2020.