Construction industry gets boost.....as Addoha Group cement plant opens next month

  Ambassador Alaoui M’hammdi,

By Edmund Mingle

The 60-million euro cement plant being constructed in Tema by the Addoha Group of Morocco, with the aim of boosting the country’s housing sector, will be operational next month.

The plant, which adds to the growing Moroccan investment in Ghana, is expected to produce one million tonnes of cement annually.

Mrs. Nezha Alaoui M’hammdi, Moroccan Ambassador to Ghana, who announced this at the commemoration of Morocco’s National Day, known as the Feast of the Throne, in Accra on Saturday, expressed delight at the improved relations between the two countries which was fuelling trade and investments.

“In terms of economic relations, the investment made last year by the Moroccan Group, leaders in the housing sector, Addoha, and the presence of Moroccan economic interests in Ghana, such as Bank of Africa, Saham Insurance or Royal Air Maroc, point to the growing interest of the Moroccan private sector for Ghana and its desire to make it a gateway for Anglophone Africa,” she said.

In addition, the OCP Africa, a subsidiary of the OCP Group, a leading global producer of fertiliser and related products, has opened an office in Ghana, with the aim of helping to transform Ghana’s agriculture industry. 

The increasing Moroccan investment in Ghana, and other African countries, she explained, was in line with her country’s foreign policy of enhancing south-south cooperation and regional integration for the benefit of Africans.

“The important involvement of Moroccan operators and their strong engagement in the areas of banking, insurance, air transport, telecommunications, and housing are such that the Kingdom is now one of the biggest African investor in Africa,” she stressed.

Mrs. M’hammdi described Ghana as a reliable partner and gave the assurance that trade between the two countries would continue to surge due to the various initiatives deployed by the two governments in various sectors of the economy.

She thanked the government of Ghana for the cooperation in consolidating the bilateral relations with Morocco, and expressed that country’s commitment to its partnership with Ghana.

“I express the wish that this new progressive dynamics, now engaged between our two countries, marks the renewal, the rebirth of the age-old ties of friendship and solidarity dating back to the Casablanca Conference in 1961, for a beneficial partnership for both Moroccan and Ghanaian populations.

“We have proved in the last years by stepping up our efforts to bring our bilateral relations with the Republic of Ghana to higher levels. We have done it with passion, consistency, determination and hand in hand with the Ghanaian authorities,” she said.

 Nii Osah Mills, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, who led the government delegation to the event, also lauded active exchanges between Ghana and Morocco after the establishment of their joint cooperation in 2015.

He believed the improved bilateral relations would continue to benefit the people of both countries, and expressed Ghana’s commitment to the relationship.