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The Dangote Group, the leading manufacturing conglomerate in West Africa, has begun the construction of a $200 million cement grinding plant in Cote d’Ivoire.

The company said the cement plant has a production capacity of three million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) of cement and is expected to be completed in 18 months, according to Devakumar Edwin, Dangote Group’s Executive Director in charge of Strategy, Projects, and Portfolio Management, who made the disclosure on Thursday.

When completed, the cement plant will double the total cement production capacity in Cote d’Ivoire, creating 3,000 direct and indirect jobs. The plant, consisting of two lines of 1.5 mmtpa, will sit on over 60 hectares of land beside the New Industrial Park in Yongbyon, a city just outside Abidjan, the capital city.

Dangote Group plans to deploy Nigerian experts to train the local workforce after the plant has been completed. Ayoki Fabricon, an Indian-based engineering company, and Tyssen Krupp, a German steel firm, are the main contractors handling the project, Edwin said.

In February, Dangote Group announced that it had also begun the construction of two cement plants in Okpella in Edo State and Itori in Ogun State. The company said the Okpella plant will produce 3 mmtpa of cement while the Itori plant will produce 6 mmtpa of cement in two lines. Both plants, which are expected to be completed in three years, will raise the company’s total output in Nigeria to 41.25mmtpa.

Dangote Group is currently ramping up its cement production capacity in Nigeria, its largest market, and across Africa to take advantage of growing demand for housing and infrastructure. Last year, the company signed a $4.34 billion deal with a Chinese firm to build cement plants in 10 African countries as well as Nepal.