Moroccan billionaire Anas Sefrioui discusses $46 million CIMAF cement expansion plan with Gabon's president

Anas Sefrioui traveled to Libreville on May 20 and sat down with Gabon's President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema at the Palais Rénovation, presenting a $46 million plan to expand CIMAF's industrial footprint in the country at a moment when the Gabonese government is pushing hard to end its dependence on imported clinker.

The plan has two technical pillars. First, a third cement production line at CIMAF's existing Owendo facility near Libreville, which will directly increase the company's capacity to respond to surging local construction demand driven by major public infrastructure programmes. Second, an expansion of CIMAF's clinker production capacity, the upstream process that produces the binding material at the core of cement manufacturing. By producing clinker locally rather than importing it, CIMAF can control more of the value chain, reduce exposure to international commodity price volatility and support the Gabonese government's directive to ban clinker imports from January 1, 2027.

The timing of the meeting was deliberate. The Gabonese directive banning clinker imports, issued as part of the transitional government's broader industrial self-sufficiency strategy since the August 2023 military takeover that brought Oligui Nguema to power, has created a commercial obligation for cement producers operating in the country to invest in domestic clinker production. CIMAF, which has been present in Gabon for several years through its Owendo plant, is positioning itself to be the anchor supplier of locally produced clinker when the ban takes effect.

The investment follows a strategic pivot Sefrioui has been executing across his CIMAF network. Earlier this month, he sold CIMAF's only French cement plant, exiting a European asset that had become commercially difficult to justify given rising energy costs, tightening EU emissions regulations and weaker French construction demand. The capital freed from that exit is being redirected into Africa, where CIMAF already operates in more than ten countries across West and Central Africa, including Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Chad and Congo. The Gabon expansion is the latest and most capital-intensive expression of that continental doubling-down.

Sefrioui's overall investment thesis is built on a structural insight: in many Francophone African markets, cement had to be imported at premium prices because local production capacity did not exist. Building grinding and integrated clinker facilities in those markets generates a cost advantage that is extremely difficult for later entrants to replicate, while simultaneously responding to government pressure for industrialisation and domestic value addition.

The combined effect of the third production line and the expanded clinker capacity will push CIMAF Gabon's annual cement output to approximately 1.85 million tonnes, well above Gabon's estimated domestic demand of 900,000 tonnes annually. The surplus production is intended for export across the Central African region, where construction-driven demand remains robust despite political instability in several markets.

CIMAF is a subsidiary of Ciments de l'Atlas, the Moroccan cement group at the heart of Sefrioui's industrial empire. Forbes estimated his net worth at approximately $1.3 billion in 2026, a figure the publication noted had come under some pressure as Morocco's real estate market, where Sefrioui's Addoha housing group also operates, has faced headwinds from higher interest rates.