Moroccan cement producer CimentsAfrique(CIMAF) has opened a US $ 62.9million newly constructed cement plant in Ghana following it’s inauguration by President John Dramani Mahama in the free zone commune, Tema.
As the sole Moroccan investment in Ghana, with a fix production capacity of 1million tons yearly, the corporation is also building an auxiliary paper factory to manufacture cement paper bag for cement packaging, generating more than 200 jobs at the operational stage, and extra 5000 indirect jobs in cement distribution and transport haulage.
Minister of Employment and Labour Relation, Haruna Iddrisu, said the scheme will add immensely to the construction sector, and employment creation and the growth of the economy of 1million tons of cement production.
“Ghana is a safe and secure place of investment and the reality of the commissioning remains a sign of the confidence of investors in Ghana’s economic headship.”
Mr. Iddrisu said more than 1000 jobs were generated at the construction stage and at the operational stage 200 additional jobs were also generated whilst noting that government will acknowledge fair trade practices and competition
“It is the hope of the President of Ghana to guarantee that the International Trade Commission will start work in earnest to make certain just and equitable trade and sanction heavily those who will hide behind export subsidizing to undercut local cement manufacture and the local cement industry as a whole,” he noted.
He confirmed that apart from direct foreign investment by Cimaf, government is seeking to further to working with them to sustain Ghana’s housing sector.
President of Cimaf, Anas Sefrioui said that an investment of this kind will allow Ghana to achieve adequacy in cement production.
He pointed out that 95percent of the company will be completely managed by Ghanaian human resources. “For this reason the company has sent 30 Ghanaian technicians to Morocco for a three month training course to guarantee the permanency of the project in the years to come.”
The plant consists of up to date equipment like cement grinding, laboratory, packaging unit and others. Cimaf has outfitted plants in various regions of Africa such as Angola, Tanzania, and Senegal, with other plants under construction in Mauritania and Chad.
Extract from constructionreviewonline.com