Dangote Cement Launches Plant in Zambia

Dangote Cement inaugurates $400 million cement plant and 30 megawatts (MW) coal-fired power plant in Zambia.

The new plant, with the capacity to produce 1.5 million metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) is located in Masaiti District, Ndola town in Zambia.

The cement plant with the power plant came at a cost $420 million. The plant has already started production.

Speaking during the commissioning, President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, said the $400 million spent on the new cement plant came from Nigeria, saying that with the plant, the company now has about 14 cement plants located in several countries in Africa.

He added that the power plant would generate 30 MW, while 20 MW of the generated power would be used by the company while the remaining 10 MW would be reserved.

Lola Apampa For 2015 Hult Prize

Lola Apampa, a Nigerian student from Warwick Business School is part of a team competing for the chance to win $1 million after entering the sixth Annual Hult Prize.

Apampa’s team SEED is one of two teams from Warwick Business School who have reached the regional finals.

The Hult Prize regional final competitions will take place on March 13 and 14 in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai and Shanghai. This year the theme, selected by former USA President Bill Clinton, revolves around solving the problem of early childhood education in the urban slum.

Team SEED comprises of Lola Apampa, alongside Arya Choudhury, Shaurya Mehta, Prerna Kumra and Daniel Van Beest Van Andel, who will be representing WBS at the San Francisco regional finals.

Team SEED representative, Lola Apampa, said:

“Our team name, SEED, stands for Social Enterprise for Education & Development. We thought it a fitting name for this competition as it is our aim to plant the seed, so to speak, of early childhood education in the urban slums of the world and nurture young children through education for a better and brighter tomorrow.

Early childhood education is one of the fundamentals which must be put in place if a society is to progress.

As a team we are honoured to compete in the Hult Prize and look forward to being part of an initiative with the potential to greatly improve those communities that need it most.”

Student teams compete in five cities around the world for a chance to secure $1 million in start-up funding to launch a sustainable social venture.

The 2015 Hult Prize will focus on building start-ups that provide sustainable, high quality early education solutions to 10 million children under the age of six in urban slums and beyond by the year 2020.

Following the regional finals, one winning team from each host city will move into a summer business incubator, where participants will receive mentorship, advisory and strategic planning as they create prototypes and set-up to launch and scale their new ventures.

A final round of competition will be hosted by Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) at its annual meeting in September, where CGI delegates will select a winning team to be awarded the $1 million prize by Clinton himself.

Dean of WBS, Professor Mark Taylor, said:

“It is great news to see, not one, but two teams of Warwick MBA participants have reached regional finals, for the fifth year in a row.

This time our MBAs will not only be represented in the European finals in this challenge, but also in the San Francisco regionals too. It is evidence that we are producing world-class, socially responsible, creative leaders and managers who think on a global scale. We wish them all the best for their challenge in London and San Francisco on March 13 and 14.”