Constructed at a conservative cost of $500m, the plant is expected to directly employ more than 1000 people, while thousands of indirect jobs will also be created.

The plant, which is now the largest in Congo, rolled out its first bag of cement on August 7, 2017.

The Congo plant commissioning will bring the total of Dangote cement fully operational plants to 10 across Africa.

Dangote Cement itself is currently in 17 African countries.

The company’s third quarter unaudited results showed that the Congo plant, which recently began operations, has almost doubled the size of the cement sector in the country.

In the overall, Dangote Cement has maintained its strong hold in the domestic cement market, accounting for 65 per cent of the Nigerian cement market, while pan-African volumes went up by 7.5 per cent to 7 metric tonnes per annum. Analysis of the results indicated that the company recorded strong volumes in Senegal, Ethiopia and Cameroon.