BUA Cement, Africa’s leading cement giant, has signed an agreement with Sinoma CBMI of China for the construction of three new cement plants of 3 million tonnes each per annum (mmtpa) in Edo, Sokoto and Adamawa states of Nigeria.
The plants are to be completed by the end of 2022. Upon completion, this will bring BUA Cement’s total capacity to 20 million metric tonnes by 2022. At 9 million tonnes combined capacity, this is the single largest contract ever awarded in the Nigerian cement industry for the construction of new cement plants at the same time and by a single company in Nigeria, according to BUA.
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These 3 new plants are in addition to BUA Cement’s already existing 6mmtpa plants in Edo State, 2mmtpa plants in Sokoto State and another 3mmtpa BUA Cement plant in Sokoto – which will be commissioned in the second quarter (Q2) of 2021.
Speaking at the ceremony held simultaneously at BUA HQ in Lagos and the CBMI HQ in China, Abdul Samad Rabiu, Chairman of BUA Cement, said the expansion decision was to transform the manufacturing industry and increase Nigeria’s cement production capacity, noting that “Nigeria and the surrounding region are still home to huge opportunities in construction, housing, infrastructure, and allied industries”.
“Despite these opportunities, there is no doubt that there is still a huge deficit in supply whilst demand continues to increase in Nigeria. This situation has led to an increase in the retail prices of cement despite ex-factory prices remaining partially unchanged. To bridge this huge deficit gap in Nigeria and in the absence of new major investments in the industry, we have taken this decision to invest and build these new plants at a total project cost of $1.05billion which will be completed by the end of 2022,” said Rabiu.
On his part, Tong Laigou, chairman of SINOMA CBMI, praised the longstanding partnership between BUA and CBMI. He said SINOMA CBMI was pleased to work with BUA on this huge project and help the cement giant in its aspiration to be the best cement manufacturer in Africa. He further added that CBMI would bring their expertise and wealth of experience working in this environment to bring the project to completion on schedule.
BUA Cement Plc is Nigeria’s second-largest cement company.
