Gypsum industry news

Nigeria: State governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya opened the Gombe State Investment Summit in the northeastern state of Gombe on 12 October 2022. The summit aims to attract investors from within and outside of Nigeria. The state government hopes that local mineral reserves and the state's strategic location will appeal to investors from new industries to the state, including the gypsum wallboard industry.

The This Day newspaper has reported that Yahaya said “We have the largest deposits of gypsum in the country." He continued “Gombe is also blessed with huge commercial deposits of coal, oil, and gas."

Ghana: Germany’s Knauf plans to open a training centre to provide knowledge and skills to construction professionals. It will be opened by Isabel Knauf, Member of the Knauf Group Management Committee, Gerd Müller, the German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Christiane Laibach, chairwoman of the Management Board of Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), according to the Ghana News Agency. The opening is part of the German African Business Summit. The centre will offer up to 800 training positions per year. It is part of a wider training initiative being organised by Knauf, DEG and the BMZ in Nigeria, Tanzania, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia.

Nigeria: Nigeria is to benefit from a US$500m investment in a new gypsum block plant, as an alternative to the conventional cement block. It is a bid by private developers that is projected to slash the total cost of housing by 50%, according to Kingsly Uka Okoronkwo, group managing director of Ojim Royal Investment and Property Limited, a real estate developer.

Okoronkwo said that Nigeria is blessed with diverse minerals, including gypsum, which at the moment is completely untapped. When utilised, it will help tackle Nigeria's housing deficit. "If I have to quote the words of the minister of mines and steel, Nigeria has a deposit of 12Mt of gypsum spread across 17 States of the Federation," said Okoronkwo. "We hope to utilise gypsum in crashing the price of house in Nigeria and create employment for youths." He added that gypsum reduces the cost of housing by 50% because it 'takes away' painting and plastering.

The gypsum block plant is expected to take 18 months to install, although according to Okoronkwo, there have been delays due to 'bureaucratic bottlenecks, which hindered the start of work in November 2014.'

"Our partners are very eager to start off because the finance has been secured and the interest is already reading," said Okoronkwo. "We're looking at US$500m for a start. In the first year of operations, we plan to build 10,000 houses."