HARARE: A five-member team from Dangote Group began work yesterday on mega investments in energy, cement manufacturing and coal mining.
The team is a follow-up to last week’s visit to the country by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, where he said his group would invest in Zimbabwe.
The team is led by Abdu Mukhtar, Dangote Group chief strategist. The team has a lawyer and geologists. It will be in the country for a week and will “meet every official necessary”.
For the projects to go ahead, they need authorisations from the ministries of Mines and Mining Development, Energy and Power Development, Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment and Environment, Water and Climate, among others.
Last week, Dangote told journalists he was in the country to scout for opportunities and invest “like we have been doing in all the other African countries”.
He said investments would take place “as soon as we get permits”, adding that the government had promised to accelerate the process.
“As soon as we get things right, we will move. We are not here looking to invest. We have already made up our minds to invest so we are here and we will invest,” he said. Dangote said the cement plant in Zimbabwe would be bigger than all the plants the group has.
Government has promised to accelerate the process as the proposed investments have the potential to turn around the fortunes of the economy and lure other investors.
The Dangote Group has cement manufacturing plants in South Africa, Zambia, Senegal, Ethiopia, Congo Republic, Gabon and Tanzania.
The group also has bulk cement packaging terminals in Accra (Ghana), Monrovia (Liberia), Freetown (Sierra Leone) and Abidjan (Ivory Coast).
It also has bulk cement import or export terminals in Port Harcourt and Lagos in Nigeria. The Dangote Group is also into sugar refining, salt refining, flour and semolina milling, and noodles and pasta manufacturing, among others.
