The President/Chief Executive of the Dangote Group of Nigeria, Ahadji Aliko Dangote, has lauded the Government of Cameroon for her collaboration towards the realisation of the Dangote Cement Factory in Douala.

Dangote, who is currently rated Africa’s richest man, paid a brief and unannounced visit to Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala, on November 8, during which he expressed profound gratitude to the Cameroon Government, for her collaboration towards the realisation of the multi-million dollar Dangote Cement Plant Project in Douala.

The Post learnt that the visit was mainly to enable the Chief Executive to personally assess for himself, the level of work of the project, located at Base Elf on the banks of the River Wouri in Douala.

During the visit, Dangote was led on a guided tour of the site by the General Manager of the Cement plant, Abdullahi Baba, who was assisted by technical experts from the Sinoma International Engineering Ltd, the main contactor handling the cement plant project.

Dangote was told that the cement plant is 90 percent ready for commissioning. Abdullahi Baba said the project would have been completed and the plant functional by now, if not for some technical problems. He, however,said the problems were being resolved,adding that the project will soon be completed.

Before he left Cameroon later that day, Dangote, lauded the efforts of the Cameroon team of the Group led by Abdullahi Baba, which has been working round the clock towards the realisation of the project. Dangote declared that the new cement factory will begin production before the end of the year.

Major Reasons For Delay Dangote was publicly seen for the first time in Douala on September 19, 2011 during the launching ceremony of the project. Three members of the Cameroon Government officially travelled from Yaounde for the ceremony.

At the time of the laying of the foundation stone for the project in September 2011, it was projected by the Dangote Group that it would take 14 to 18 months to complete.

Problems started with a protest by the Sawa Chiefs over the piece of land that was leased out to the Dangote Group by the State owned Port Authority of Douala, which is the official proprietor of the land. The protest delayed the start of construction work.

President Paul Biya, who received the file on the matter, authorised the Dangote Group to go ahead with the project on the site. The President instructed the Government Delegate to the Douala City Council, to look for a suitable State owned piece of land and allocate to the Sawa Chiefs as a permanent site for the Ngondo Festival.

The Dangote Cement Cameroon SA and the Sawa Chiefs soon established a friendly relationship, which has actually been beneficial to Sawa traditional and cultural institutions.

The Dangote Foundation has, since, been making a yearly gesture of FCFA 15 million to the association of Sawa Chiefs, for the organisation of the annual Ngondo Cultural Festival. The Dangote Foundation also promised to contribute FCFA 150 million to a project to construct a permanent Ngondo Secretariat, and has already advanced FCFA 45 million.

Another cause for the delay was the fact that a sub-project that was initially unforeseen -the complete re-engineering of the foundation of the cement factory which took quite some time - had to be added to the project. The re-engineering was because water was discovered in the ground during the initial construction of the foundation. The entire Base Elf area was initially part of River Wouri which was reclaimed.

The third major cause of delay, was due to the fact that the Douala Port, through which imported equipment for the project are brought into the country, had, since May this year, been facing a serious problem of congestion. This has greatly delayed the arrival of materials and equipment from abroad.

However, the Deputy General Manager of the Douala Port Authority declared at a meeting which was chaired by the Governor of the Littoral Region, late last month that they are leaving no stone unturned to curb the congestion at the Douala Port, before the year runs out.

85 Permanent Jobs Already At the time of the laying of the foundation stone of the project, the cost was put at US $ 155 million (FCFA 56 billon). But the Dangote Group was to later spend an additional US $ 25 million (about FCFA 10 billon), for the sub-project for the foundation of the factory. This put the total cost of the project to over FCFA 66 billion.

Dangote declared during the laying of the foundation in 2011 that the entire funds for the project will come from the Group’s different bank accounts or coffers, thus there would be no bank loan.

It was also projected that when the plant will go operational, the Dangote Cement Cameroon SA will offer some 300 permanent jobs and thousands of indirect jobs. As by November 8 Dangote visited, it was disclosed that the project has already recruited a total of 85 permanent workers, comprised of 74 Cameroonians and 11 expatriates.