Abidjan, 27 Feb. -(ANA) - King Mohammed VI, accompanied by Ivorian Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan, paid a visit to the building site of 'Résidences Akwaba' real estate project, carried out by Moroccan group Alliances in the city of Anyama, district of Abidjan.
At a cost of 200 million euros, this projects mirrors the King's effort to enable the African countries in general, and Côte d'Ivoire in particular, to benefit from the Moroccan expertise in the eradication of shanty towns.
Built over an area of 65 hectares, the project is to build 7,800 economic and social housing units, as well as several community-based facilities (health center, schools, high schools, middle schools, a trade centre, a mosque, a church and sport grounds.)
 This integrated project, which will help limited-income citizens in Abidjan acquire decent, functional and accessible accommodations, will be constructed over three phases within five years and will benefit around 70,000 people.
The Résidences Akwaba project is part of the Moroccan Alliances group's comprehensive building programme of 10,000 social housing units and 4,000 medium and high standing houses in the district of Abidjan, as laid out in the agreement signed by the said group and the Ivorian State.
The King also launched the building works of a cement factory packaging bags the Yopougon industrial area of western Abidjan. The cost of the plant is 12 million euros (8 billionn CFA francs).
This unit, to be carried out by Africa-Côte d'Ivoire Cement company (CIMAF-Côte d'Ivoire), a subsidiary "of Addoha" Moroccan group, will have a yearly production capacity of 80 million bags (extendable to 160 millions), for the group's cement plants in Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea Conakry, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Niger and Mali.
With a strong added-value, this project will be build over an area of 3.5 hectars, in line with the royal pledge mentioned in his speech at the opening of the Ivorian-Moroccan economic forum (Feb. 24-25) and related to strengthening south-south cooperation, spurring the private sector's role and strengthening the positioning of the Kingdom in West Africa.

King Mohammed VI also visited the new cement plant of the Addoha group, a Moroccan property developer, with an annual production capacity of 500,000 tons of cement (extendable to 1,000,000 T/year), the plant includes a crushing workshop, a bagging and shipping workshop, covered storage halls for clinker and additions, a quality control lavatory and administrative, commercial and technical buildings.
The plant's activity will consist of importing clinker from two factories of the Moroccan company "Ciment Atlas, CIMAT", also a subsidiary of Addoha group, to produce and market all types of cement.
The Abidjan cement plant was built at a cost of 30 million euros and is designed in conformity with the latest technology in field. It is environment-friendly and will optimize energy consumption and cement production according to international standards. A share of 15% of the plant's initial investment is devoted to the environment.
The plant has been operational since July 2013 and created 250 jobs, 95% of which is meant for locals. The plant will contribute in competing with cement prices volatility, an issue that has huge impact on the country's real estate sector.
The Cimant-Cimaf group is present in Guinea Conakry, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Gabon, Mali, Burkina Faso Congo Brazzaville and Niger. It has two production units in Morocco (Béni-Mellal and Settat) which are operational since 2010, while a third unit is under construction in Nador, in northern Morocco. -(ANA)

AB/ANA/ 27 February 2014  - - -