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Atlantic Cement is owned by Ivorian business mogul Kone Dossongui. The company has apparently received all the necessary authorizations it needs to carry out this project. The Port Authority of Kribi (PAK), which manages the deep seaport of Kribi, has provided the company with a 10-hectare plot to carry out the plant’s construction.  Atlantic Cement will be Atlantic Group’s second investment in the industrial sector in Cameroon after Atlantic Cocoa. This new plant is said to be similar to the plant of Société de ciment de Côte d'Ivoire (SCCI), which is fully controlled by Mr Bernard Koné Dossongui and had a project cost of XAF 60 billion (US$110 million), according to Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Souleymane Diarrassouba. The arrival of Atlantic Cement into the local market will likely strengthen the competition, which currently has five players competing for orders. These players include Cimencam, which is the local subsidiary of Lafarge-Holcim-Maroc (2.2mln tons production capacity), Nigerian group Dangote’s subsidiary (1.5mln tons capacity), Mira (1mln tons capacity), Mecem Cameroon that is controlled by Turkish Eren Holding (600,000 tons capacity), and Moroccan group Comaf which is expected to be extended (currently at 500,000 tons capacity).  Investment in this project will solidify the Atlantic Group’s position in the Cameroonian economy. It already holds assets in the banking (Atlantic Bank) and industrial (Atlantic Cocoa and now Atlantic Cement) sectors, where it has teamed up with local investors. Atlantic Cocoa is a cocoa processing unit with a capacity of 48,000 tons which is expandable to 64,000 tons.  This cocoa processing unit was commissioned last year in the industrial zone of the port of Kribi. The company exported its produce for the first in December of the same year. On the same note, Atlantic Financial Group (AFG) finished acquiring BNP Paribas subsidiaries in Comoros, Gabon, and Mali late last year. This step further strengthens its footprint in the African banking sector.  This new project also confirms Koné Dossongui’s expansion plan for Africa. A former Minister of Agriculture in Côte d'Ivoire, Koné Dossongui is the first major Ivorian investor in Cameroon and is also the first Ivorian to invest in the country’s banking and telecoms sectors. In his homeland, he is the main cashew nut exporter in a nation known to be the leading exporter of this cash crop. He also wholly owns a cement plant.  Photo: Aerial View of Cement Factory (Siwabud Veerapaisarn | Dreamstime) Related News:

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