Billionaires Narendra Raval, Edha Nahdi bet $600 million on clinker as Sarbjit Rai enters cement business

Narendra Raval and Edha Nahdi have committed roughly Sh77 billion ($600 million) to clinker plants in Kenya, and a third industrialist, Sarbjit Singh Rai, has filed plans for his own cement facility, a capacity race that is remaking East Africa's building-materials market after two decades of multinational control.

It was reported that the three are collectively deploying about Sh133 billion across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.

Clinker is the capital-intensive upstream input East African producers have historically imported. Building it locally is a bet that regional construction demand justifies self-sufficiency and it lands as Holcim's retreat from the region hands control of long-established assets to local and regional owners.

Raval's Devki Group commissioned a Sh45 billion ($347 million) clinker plant at Sebit in West Pokot, opened by President William Ruto on 10 April 2024. Operated through Cemtech, it processes about 6,000 tonnes a day roughly 2 million tonnes a year with grinding at Eldoret.

Raval arrived in Kenya from Gujarat in 1978 as a teenage temple assistant and began rolling steel at Athi River in the early 1990s. Devki now reports more than $1 billion in annual revenue and about 14,000 staff. He acquired Rwandan producer Cimerwa in a deal reported at $84 million. His run has drawn scrutiny: Devki faces roughly Sh4 billion in tax demands alongside competition penalties.

Tanzania's Amsons Group, led by Nahdi, holds 96.54 percent of Bamburi Cement after buying the stake for Sh23.6 billion ($183 million) in December 2024, when a rival bid from Savannah Clinker collapsed after its chairman was arrested over alleged fraud.

Bamburi has since signed a Sh32 billion ($250 million) agreement with SINOMA for a greenfield clinker plant at Matuga in Kwale County, 1.6 million tonnes a year, construction from the first quarter of 2026, clinker production targeted for 2028. Amsons has committed about $400 million to Bamburi over three years. It separately bought Holcim's 65 percent of Tanzania's Mbeya Cement under a November 2023 agreement, at an undisclosed price.

Rai, who runs Sarrai Group from Uganda, has filed with Kenya's National Environment Management Authority for a cement and cement-products plant at Lusoi Village in Nyeri County. It will be developed by Ndovu Rock Limited, in which he holds 50 percent, with Rajbir Singh Rai and Amaanraj Singh Rai holding 25 percent each. The investment value has not been disclosed.