IBESE, Nigeria - Chinese company Sinoma has completed a $1 billion cement plant in Nigeria that will provide the country with a new export industry.

The plant, owned by Nigeria-based cement giant Dangote Group, was formally unveiled Thursday evening by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan at Ibese, in southwest Nigeria's Ogun State.

Sinoma signed a $1.6-billion contract and $1.177-billion letter of intent with Dangote Group in February 2008 to build the plant, which will have an annual capacity of 6 million tons and is expected to make cement more available and affordable in Nigeria.

Jonathan said the country was set to be an exporter of cement under the 2002 backward integration policy introduced by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Jonathan said his administration would continue to encourage the private sector in the development of the nation's economy.

Dangote Group chairman Aliko Dangote said the new plant would generate 7,000 direct jobs and many indirect jobs, noting it was the biggest cement factory in sub-Saharan Africa.

"With the commissioning and full operation of the plant, Nigeria will start exportation of cement to African countries and beyond in a month," he said.

Sinoma senior director Wu Shoufu told Xinhua that local workers had made a great contribution to the company's rapid completion of the project.

More than 2,000 Nigerians had been involved in the building process, he said.

"We are glad that this is happening," he told Xinhua.

Qiu Jian, China's acting consular general in Lagos, said cooperation between China and Nigeria in various aspects had benefited thousands, if not millions, of citizens of the two countries.

"China and Nigeria need each other economically and politically, and we attach great importance to developing the bilateral ties from a strategic perspective," the diplomat said.