Africa's richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has invested N80billion ($400million) to set up a cement plant in Kenya through East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPCC). Dangote entered Kitui County's limestone mines through the Kenya's local cement in order to open $400 million, representing Sh34.8 billion Kenyan currency in Kitui County, Kenya.
Dangote Cement which also constructing major cement plants in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia, already has a license to prospect for limestone in Kitui County while he revised the upcoming factory's annual production capacity to three million tonnes from the previous 1.5 million tonnes. According to him, "We are reviewing plans for Kenya with a view to increasing the scale of our proposed factory from 1.5 million tonnes per annum (MTA) to 3MTA".
Dangote's upcoming plants in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia will give it a total capacity of 8.5MTA, putting it ahead of Kenya's Bamburi and Uganda's Tororo that currently have capacities of 3.1MTA each. "We are confident there will be sufficient demand both in Kenya and neighbouring countries".
Besides being rich in limestone, Kitui is also attractive due to its proximity to the Mui basin which has large reserves of coal. The coal is tipped to replace the relatively expensive diesel fuel in firing energy-hungry cement factories. The group plans to have around 60 million tonnes of production, grinding and import capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2016″.
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