Rwanda to Sell Stake in Cement Firm

Rwanda’s government aims to put its 49 per cent stake in the country’s biggest cement maker, Cimerwa, up for sale this month, the prime minister said on Saturday.

The company, which is 51 per cent owned by South Africa’s PPC Limited, has an installed annual production capacity of 600,000 tonnes.

Reuters quoted him to have said: “We have asked our partners if they are interested and the timeline

is one month,” Edouard Ngirente told a meeting of senior officials broadcast on national television.

“By the end of this month we will auction (the stake).”

He said PPC had yet to specify if it was interested in the stake, which he gave no valuation for, adding that other buyers would be sought if necessary.

A construction boom in Rwanda has driven up demand for cement as the government builds roads, power plants and a new international airport. Private developers have also been building new houses and office blocks.

The head of Cimerwa told Reuters in July that demand for cement was growing at 7-8 percent annually as new building projects come up. Rwanda also imports cement from neighbours Uganda and Tanzania.

Botswana Sees Lower Mineral Revenues Diamond rich Botswana expects mineral revenues in the 2019/20 fiscal year to drop by four per cent to 13.6 billion pula ($1.26 billion), due to a decline in royalties and dividends, a minerals ministry budget document showed on Thursday.

Mineral Resources Minister Eric Molale, said in the document that global diamond demand was showing signs of slowing down. Retail jewellery sales fell during the last quarter of 2018, he said, while polished prices continued to decline into the beginning of 2019, albeit at a slower rate.

“Trading and prices of diamonds are expected to remain subdued during the first quarter of 2019 due to significant overstocking of small polished diamonds,” Reuters quoted Molale to have said in the document presented to parliament.

Debswana, a joint venture between Anglo American’s De Beers and Botswana, produced 24.1 million carats of diamonds in 2018, a 6 percent jump from the previous year.

The company is the largest contributor to Botswana’s government revenues.

Debswana, a joint venture between Anglo American’s De Beers and Botswana, produced 24.1 million carats of diamonds in 2018, a 6 percent jump from the previous year.

The company is the largest contributor to Botswana’s government revenues.

Lotfi Senhaji said the Nigerian plant would cost $1.5 billion and would have a total capacity of 1 million tonnes of ammonia.

OCP signed a protocol agreement in June to build the industrial platform with Nigeria’s Sovereign Investment Authority.

In Ethiopia, the Moroccan firm expects its chemical plant to be operational by 2023 or 2024, with an initial capacity of 2.5 million tonnes of fertilisers, he said.

These investments are part of a strategy to boost phosphate-based fertiliser use and production in Africa.