The battle to dominate Ethiopia’s cement market is set to intensify following the commissioning of Dangote Cement’s plant later this month.

Says Dangote Cement Ethiopia country GM Teshome Lemma: “Construction of the state-of-the-art cement factory has been completed and what is remaining is the official commissioning, which will be in April.”

With the commissioning of the new plant, Dangote Cement Ethiopia, a subsidiary of Dangote Group, which is owned by Africa’s richest person, Nigerian Aliko Dangote, becomes the biggest cement maker in East Africa, with a capacity of 2.5-million tons a year.

The cement factory, located some 85 km west of the capital, Addis Ababa, cost $500-million to build. The plant was constructed by Chinese construction giant Sinoma International Engineering.

The commissioning of Dangote Cement Ethiopia is bound to intensify competition in Ethiopia’s cement market, where Habesha Cement, Modric Cement, Mugher Cement and Messebo Cement have been the main manufacturers.

Cement demand in the Horn of Africa nation has been increasing, as the country implements big infrastructure projects to propel economic growth, which has averaged 7% a year in recent years.

The new factory is one of the 14 projects the company is undertaking as part of its strategy to solidify its presence in Africa’s cement industry. The plant in Ethiopia is part of the $4-billion the company is investing in East Africa alone.

Ethiopian government data indicate that demand for cent in the country stood at eight-million tons in 2012 and has been increasing at a rate of 25% a year. The current national capacity stands at 13.5-million tons and government plans to increase capacity to 27-million tons by 2015.

Dangote Group, which is headquartered in Nigeria, has operations in 14 African countries, including Zambia, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Ghana and Senegal.