Dangote Cement would on Thursday in Congo commission its 1.5 million metric tonnes per annum capacity Cement Plant valued at 500 million dollars.

This was disclosed in a statement to newsmen on Monday in Lagos.

The plant, described as the largest in Congo, rolled out its first bag of cement on Aug 7, and is expected to create about 1000 direct and indirect jobs.

According to the statement, the Congo Plant commissioning will make 10 fully operational Dangote Cement Plants across Africa.

It said that Dangote Cement maintained its stronghold in the domestic cement market accounting for 65 per cent of local cement market while Pan-African volumes went up by 7.5 per cent to 7.0 mta.

“Our Pan-African operations are performing strongly with excellent sales growth in Cameroon, Ethiopia and Senegal.

“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.