Mr Sarbjit, who operates from Uganda, joins Kenya’s Narendra Raval and Tanzania’s Edha Nahdi in seeking to carve out a slice of the cement market across the East African Community (EAC), highlighting the growing flow of capital across the borders of the seven-member regional bloc.

Together, the three tycoons have committed at least Sh133 billion to cement acquisitions and new clinker plants across East Africa in the past three years, excluding deals and projects whose costs have not been disclosed.

The shift reflects the indigenous ownership of East Africa’s cement industry, with African tycoons deploying billions to expand local production, increase competition and bring down cement costs as a construction boom gathers momentum.

The local tycoons have also kept China’s Huaxin Cement at bay as the Chinese giant rapidly expands its footprint across sub-Saharan Africa through major strategic acquisitions in Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Malawi.

As European cement giants like Holcim retreat and governments sell down their stakes, Africa’s industrial billionaires are swooping in — buying factories, building new plants and betting that the continent’s housing and infrastructure deficit will keep cement demand rising for years.

With deep pockets and fortunes built in other businesses, these investors have been able to deploy billions into the capital-intensive cement industry, setting up plants to produce clinker, grinding facilities to turn the material into cement and distribution networks to get the finished product to markets.

Others have snapped up assets from foreign investors exiting Africa and governments such as Kenya’s, which have been divesting from what they see as non-strategic sectors.

The result has been an increasingly concentrated cement industry, with a handful of well-capitalised tycoons positioning themselves to reap big from a continent that is, quite literally, a construction site.

Mr Rai, through his conglomerate Sarrai Group, already operates the Kisumu-based Rai Cement, which serves mostly the Western Kenya market.

Based in Uganda, Mr Sarbjit’s wealth has also come from sugar and he got the lease for Mumias Sugar. He is also in timber, flour, household products and energy.

With the proposed Nyeri plant, Sarrai Group will venture into clinker production, a move that has probably been informed by the government’s decision to impose heavy tariffs on this critical raw material in cement manufacturing.

The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) estimates the proposed investment at about Sh2 billion, although the project’s formal estimated cost section does not disclose a figure.

Sarrai Group also operates cement businesses in Uganda and Rwanda, putting him in the small group of deep-pocketed individuals with interests in cement spanning multiple East African markets.

Mr Sarbjit’s planned expansion adds to a flurry of activity in the cement sector in Kenya, with the highlight being Mr Nahdi’s acquisition of Bamburi Cement and a stake in East African Portland Cement (EAPC) through his holding company, Amsons Group.

Besides acquiring a 65 percent stake in Tanzania’s Mbeya Cement from Holcim, Mr Nahdi has also unveiled a Sh38.8 billion clinker plant for Bamburi, even as he committed to invest Sh51.6 billion in the Kenyan cement maker over three years.

Holcim, the Swiss-based multinational, was a major shareholder in both Bamburi Cement and EAPC, holding 58.6 percent of Bamburi and a further 29.2 percent of EAPC through its subsidiaries.

Amsons, through Kalahari Cement, further increased its shareholding in EAPC by buying the Kenyan government’s stake in the Athi River-based cement manufacturer at a cost of Sh1.6 billion.

While Amsons took over Holcim’s interests in Kenya, Sarrai Group and Rwimi Holdings acquired its stakes in Uganda and Rwanda, in a Sh18 billion transaction.

Besides cement, Mr Nahdi, one of the region’s youngest billionaires, is also in oil, logistics, real estate, food and trading.

Recent activity in the sector has also seen Mr Raval, popularly known as Guru due to his priestly background, expand his cement empire, building a new clinker plant in Kenya even as he acquired a cement maker in Rwanda, in the quest for a bigger share of the building industry’s supply chain.

In April 2024, Mr Raval, one of Kenya’s wealthiest individuals, unveiled the Sh45 billion clinker plant in West Pokot, as the steel magnate moved to become a major regional supplier of the key raw material used in cement production. The plant has a capacity of 6,000 tonnes of clinker a day.

Earlier, in January 2024, Mr Raval’s National Cement Company completed the buyout of a 99.94 percent stake in Rwanda’s Cimerwa Plc in an $84.3 million (Sh13.6 billion) deal, expanding the tycoon’s cement operations in East Africa. Mr Raval’s estate extends to steel, roofing, fertiliser, packaging and aviation.

That cement has made some Africans billionaires is not unique to East Africa; Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, got his big break by dealing in cement.

The Nigerian built Dangote Cement, now Africa’s largest cement producer, with a capacity of about 48.6 million tonnes annually across 10 African countries.

His compatriot Abdulsamad Rabiu is another cement billionaire.

Nigeria’s second-richest person, according to Forbes, Mr Rabiu controls BUA Cement, which has grown into one of Africa’s major cement producers.

Mohammed Al Amoudi of Ethiopia is the other billionaire who has made his fortune through cement through Derba MIDROC Cement.
Derba is one of Ethiopia’s major cement plants, with reported capacity of about 2.5 million tonnes annually.

Mr Sarbjit’s plant in Lusoi Village will be developed by Ndovu Rock Limited, in which the businessman holds a 50 percent stake.

Ndovu Rock was registered on June 8, 2012. Its other shareholders are Rajbir Singh Rai and Amaanraj Singh Rai, who each hold a 25 percent stake.

“The proposed establishment of a cement and cement products manufacturing plant in Lusoi Village, Nyeri County aims to meet the growing demand for high-quality cement and related products,” Nema said in the notice/environmental assessment document.

The company says it specialises in cement manufacturing and lime processing, serving the growing demand for construction and industrial raw materials within Kenya and the wider East African region.

Clinker is mined from limestone, a creamy white or soft gray rock. Ndovu Rock, whose core business activities include the extraction, processing, and manufacture of cement and lime products, has recently secured mining licences in Homa Bay, Kericho and Kisumu counties.