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Dangote Cement has sold a 10% stake in its Senegalese subsidiary to the government in Dakar, making the state a minority shareholder in one of the country's largest cement operations at a time when the plant is facing a significant revenue slide.
The transaction, disclosed in Dangote Cement's 2025 annual report, reduces the Nigerian cement giant's direct ownership in the unit from 99.99% to 89.99%. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The deal gives the Senegalese government an institutional foothold in a strategic industrial asset. It also arrives at a difficult moment for the subsidiary. Revenues from the Senegal operation fell 21.4% in 2025, dropping from NGN192.2 billion ($138.6 million) in 2024 to NGN151 billion, according to the group's financial statements. Sales volumes fell 19.8% to 1.2 million tonnes for the full year.
Dangote's operations in Senegal have been under pressure for the better part of two years. The company's quarterly results through 2025 repeatedly pointed to post-election uncertainty following Senegal's political transition as a key drag on construction activity. Major infrastructure projects slowed sharply after the change in government, cutting into demand for cement across the market.
Dangote first entered Senegal in 2014, commissioning a 1.5 million tonne per year integrated plant in Pout, roughly 60 kilometres from Dakar. The facility sits on limestone reserves the company has described as strategically significant, given the general absence of limestone across much of coastal West Africa. The plant produces 42.5-grade cement, a higher grade than the 32.5-grade that dominated the Senegalese market before Dangote's arrival.
Despite the current headwinds, the group's wider annual report paints a broadly optimistic picture of Senegal's medium-term outlook, projecting that the resumption of key infrastructure programmes, including the Dakar-Tambacounda railway and various urban road projects, will underpin a market recovery.
At the group level, Dangote Cement's results for 2025 were strong despite the Senegal drag. Net profit more than doubled, rising 102% to NGN1.015 trillion ($732 million), driven largely by robust performance in Nigeria where revenue grew 34.8% to NGN2.96 trillion. Total group revenue reached NGN4.31 trillion ($3.1 billion), up 20.3%.
For Dakar, the state's acquisition aligns with a broader strategy by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye's government to deepen state participation in strategic industrial sectors. It is a pattern visible across West Africa, where governments have grown more assertive about securing stakes in major foreign-owned industrial assets.
Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest person with a fortune estimated at over $27 billion, has signalled continued interest in Senegal. Late last year he met with President Faye in Dakar to discuss new investment opportunities spanning energy, fertilizer and industrial sectors.
