Ethiopia has inaugurated a major new cement plant that officials say will play a key role in supporting the nation’s fast-growing construction industry.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) helped cut the ribbon on Tuesday at the Lemi National Cement Factory, located in the Amhara region. With daily production capacity of 150,000 quintals, the $500 million plant will match the output of Ethiopia’s two largest existing producers, which are owned by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote's Dangote Cement Plc and Ethiopian business magnate Sheik Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi's Derba MIDROC Cement Share Co.
The factory is a joint venture between Ethiopian and Chinese investors, including East African Holding which is controlled by Ethiopian billionaire Bizauyehu T. Bizenu, and West International Holding which is Chinese owned.
In remarks, Abiy praised the project’s speed of development and said it demonstrates the government’s focus on efficiently developing industry. “If we replicate industrial projects like Lemi across the nation, the ripple effects in job creation and national development will be unmatched, especially in sectors like steel manufacturing, fertilizer production, which can catalyze a broader industrial and agricultural revolution,” he said.
That scale places Lemi alongside plants owned by Dangote Cement, controlled by Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote, and Derba Cement, controlled by Ethiopian-born Saudi billionaire Sheik Al Amoudi. The two plants together produce half of what Lemi is expected to produce.
