IN SHORT: Aliko Dangote has raised his group’s planned investment in an Ethiopian fertiliser complex to over $4 billion, up from $2.5 billion announced in 2025. The expanded scope adds a 110km gas pipeline, a 120MW power plant, a polypropylene packaging facility, and a 2 million tonne NPK blending plant. Dangote visited the construction site in Gode alongside Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on May 17, 2026.
Aliko Dangote has nearly doubled his group’s planned investment in Ethiopia to over $4 billion, making the country the second-largest destination for Dangote Group spending on the continent after Nigeria. The expansion turns what was already one of Africa’s largest industrial agriculture projects into a fully integrated energy and manufacturing complex. Construction is underway in Gode, in Ethiopia’s Somali region, and Dangote personally inspected the site with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during a visit that signals the project’s strategic weight for both governments.
- The original $2.5 billion shareholders’ agreement between Dangote Group and Ethiopian Investment Holdings was signed in August 2025, with Ethiopia holding a 40% stake and Dangote 60%.
- The expanded scope adds a 110km natural gas pipeline, a 120MW power plant, a polypropylene packaging facility, and a 2 million tonne per year NPK blending plant alongside the core urea facility.
- The urea plant is designed to produce 3 million metric tonnes annually, which would position Ethiopia as a major regional fertiliser exporter and reduce the continent’s dependence on imported fertiliser.
- Energy supply for the Gode complex was secured in March 2026 through a 25-year, $4.2 billion natural gas supply agreement between Dangote Industries Limited and China’s GCL Group.
- The Ethiopian leg now accounts for nearly 9% of Dangote Group’s total continental investment outlay through 2030. The group’s Vision 2030 plan targets $100 billion in annual revenue and aims to scale urea output from 3 million tonnes today to 12 million tonnes by 2028.
- Museveni of Uganda separately disclosed a meeting with Dangote linked to plans for a potential East African refinery project modelled on Dangote’s 650,000 bpd Lagos facility.
The Ethiopia investment sits at the intersection of several of Africa’s most consequential economic themes: food security, energy infrastructure, and the industrialisation of the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is the continent’s second most populous nation and one of its fastest-growing economies. Its fertiliser import bill is a chronic drain on foreign reserves. A 3 million tonne per year domestic facility, backed by a guaranteed long-term gas supply, would fundamentally alter the agricultural economics of the region.
The Bigger Picture: Dangote’s expansion beyond Nigeria is accelerating. The group now has active industrial projects in Ethiopia, ongoing refinery discussions in East Africa, and pan-continental ambitions in fertiliser and petrochemicals. If the $4 billion Ethiopian complex reaches full capacity, it would make Dangote the largest urea producer on earth by 2028. For Ethiopia, the project is a rare instance of large-scale private industrial investment anchored by a fellow African investor rather than a multilateral lender or foreign government, a template Abiy Ahmed has been actively seeking. The question is whether the construction timeline and gas supply agreements survive the operational complexity of building at this scale in a frontier market.
Source: Nairametrics, May 18, 2026
