Pan-African group Dangote Cement, led by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, has signed a $1 billion contract with China's Sinoma Engineering. The agreement aims to construct new cement plants and modernize existing factories in seven African countries, including Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Nigeria.
For Cameroon, two options are under consideration: expanding the capacity of the Dangote Cement plant in Douala (1.5 million tons per year) or reviving the project to build a second unit of the same capacity in Nomayos, near Yaoundé, which has been on hold for over a decade. Aliko Dangote announced this project in 2015, with a planned investment of 88 billion FCFA and commissioning within 20 months. In 2024, Dangote reportedly obtained government approval to start the works.
This new contract with Sinoma could revive the project, although Dangote Cement has not yet communicated on the configuration chosen for Cameroon. Dangote Cement's entry in 2015 ended Cimencam's 48-year monopoly, a subsidiary of Lafarge Holcim Maroc Afrique. Since then, the Cameroonian market has seen the arrival of several other players, increasing national capacities to nearly 12 million tons, with an estimated demand of 8 million tons.
Despite this overcapacity, the price of a 50 kg bag of cement remains high, between 5,100 and 5,300 FCFA in Douala and Yaoundé. The Minister of Commerce suspects illegal price fixing.
Meanwhile, Ivorian businessman Koné Dossongui is reviving his project for a one million-ton cement plant in Kribi. Société de ciment du Cameroun, a subsidiary of Atlantic Group controlled by Dossongui, signed an amendment to its agreement with the Investment Promotion Agency on February 19, 2026. Construction work is expected to start in 2026, lasting 24 months. The total investment will exceed the initially planned 39 billion FCFA.
The Kribi industrial-port zone (KPIZ), where the plant will be located, could add up to 8 percentage points of growth to the Cameroonian economy and generate 150,000 jobs.
Dangote stated in February 2026 that these projects were critical to achieving his target of 80 million tonnes per annum production capacity by 2030.
