20120612
AFP
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday inaugurated one of sub-sahara Africa's biggest cement factories, with a capacity to produce 5.25 million metric tonnes a year.

The Dangote conglomerate is "spearheading a silent industrial revolution in the country through its laudable activities that have put Nigeria on the world map as an emerging economic giant in Africa," Jonathan said.

"Today's event will ... fast-track Dangote Cement's ambition of ranking among the top eight cement-producing companies in the world by the year 2015," he said.

Jonathan said that with the current expansion in cement production, Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, will be self-sufficient in cement by 2015 and able to export to other countries.

The conglomerate is owned by Nigerian tycoon Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man according to Forbes magazine.

The new plant in Obajana, a town in the central state of Kogi, together with two existing plants with a total installed capacity of five million metric tonnes per year, "will become the single largest cement plant in the world with a combined capacity of 10.25 million metric tonnes per annum," Dangote said.

Jonathan also performed a groundbreaking ceremony for a fourth plant at the Obajana complex that will add three million metric tonnes per year to the output when it begins operations in 2015.

The Dangote group has significant interests in Nigeria's oil, gas and foodstuff sectors, and operates in 14 other African countries.