Cement Is the New Oil as Africa’s Richest Man Takes on Lafarge

Africa’s richest man is pushing to dominate its market for cement, the material at the heart of the continent’s infrastructure boom. All that stands in his way is the world’s biggest cement maker, a flood of low-priced imports, the threat of slowing growth in contracts for dams, ports and roads and a slump in the most-traded emerging-market currencies to a record low. “Africa’s future growth is intrinsically linked to cement,” Dangote, 58, told assembled dignitaries, including Zambian President Edgar Lungu, earlier this month as he opened a new factory on the outskirts of Ndola, Zambia’s third-largest city.