Nigeria: BUA Group has embarked on the building of a USD 500m cement plant at Okpella community in Edo. When completed the plant will produce 2.5Mt/yr of cement. Executive Chairman of BUA Group, Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu, announced at the contract signing ceremony for the building of the plant on 2 June 2011 in Abuja that the building of the Edo Cement Plant would be completed by August 2013.

"The building of the Edo Cement Plant will take 28 months to be completed and it is expected to offer jobs to 4000 skilled workers and over 20,000 indirect jobs to Nigerians," Rabiu stated. He explained that the management of BUA Group had signed a contract for FLSmidth to build the plant, saying that the establishment of the facility was to assist the country to attain self-sufficiency in cement production. The project will be financed by FLSmidth and a consortium of banks led by EcoBank, which has so far provided an initial US$50m to initiate the project. Other banks in the consortium include First Bank, Diamond Bank, Fin Bank and Bank PHB.

The President of the Cement Manufacturing Association of Nigeria, Mr Joseph Makoju, lauded the management of BUA Group for the investment, saying that the plant would contribute significantly to the quest of the Federal Government to make Nigeria a net cement exporter. He lauded the government for its back-integration policy in the cement sector, saying that the policy would assist in efforts to reduce the high cost of cement and other building materials in the country. He expressed delight at the involvement of FLSmidth, saying that the company had already been involved in a number of successful cement plants in Nigeria.

The Vice President of FLSmidth, Mr Per Mejnert Kristensen, gave an assurance that his company would complete the building of the plant on schedule while commending the Federal Government for providing the atmosphere for foreign direct investment. He said his company would build a facility Nigerians would be proud of.