What to know
- Dangote Group has raised its investment target for Africa to $60 billion by 2030, up from $50 billion. The group’s Vision 2030 strategy targets annual revenue of $100 billion, according to Afreximbank.
- The group broke ground on a refinery in Kenya, a fuel pipeline between Djibouti and Ethiopia, and a tank farm in Namibia between late September and early November. It also bought almost a quarter of Kenya Pipeline Company.
- Its expansion now covers refining and fertiliser in Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia, fuel storage and pipelines in East and Southern Africa, cement plants in 11 countries, and investment talks in Egypt.
- Dangote Cement, the group’s listed cement arm, reported a 31.2% rise in nine-month profit to N974.8 billion ($714 million). It moved from net debt to a net cash position.
Dangote Group has raised its investment target for Africa to $60 billion by 2030 from $50 billion. It is building refineries, fuel terminals, pipelines and fertiliser plants across West, East and Southern Africa, and has opened talks in North Africa. Aliko Dangote, the group’s president and chief executive, announced the new target on 4 November. He told reporters that a larger programme would follow between 2030 and 2035, and said Afreximbank would contribute $10 billion towards the group’s investment plans.
Afreximbank said in April that Dangote Group had presented its Vision 2030 strategy to the bank’s board on 31 March. The strategy targets $100 billion in annual revenue and will require at least $40 billion in new investment over five years. Afreximbank underwrote $2.5 billion of a $4 billion syndicated loan for the group’s refinery in Nigeria. According to the bank, the plan includes raising the refinery’s capacity to 1.4 million barrels a day and quadrupling the group’s urea fertiliser output from 3 million tonnes a year to 12 million.
Nigeria remains the group’s base. The Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki has a stated capacity of 700,000 barrels a day. Its public offer of 4.1 billion new shares at N525 ($0.38) each aimed to raise about N2.15 trillion ($1.6 billion) for expansion. The offer closed on 27 October after an extension, and the refinery’s offer website says allotment is in progress.
In East Africa, President William Ruto and Dangote broke ground on 30 September on the Dangote East Africa Petroleum Refinery at Lamu in Kenya, with other regional heads of state attending. The refinery is designed to process 700,000 barrels a day, the same capacity as the plant in Lekki. Dangote has put its cost at about $16 billion and has said construction will take 40 months. He said the plant’s 1,000-megawatt power station will sell 500 megawatts to the Kenyan government. Ruto said at the launch that the Kenyan government will hold a stake in the refinery and that the project will create 60,000 jobs. Dangote has offered governments in the region a combined 30% stake.
On 19 October, the Nairobi Securities Exchange reported a block trade of 4.5 billion Kenya Pipeline Company shares worth KES42.5 billion ($327 million). The block was equal to 24.76% of the company’s issued shares, which had been held by state pension funds and agencies. Two days later, at a business summit in London, Dangote confirmed that his group was the buyer. He also said he planned to invest $1.5 billion in expanding Kenya’s pipeline network. The Kenyan government retained 35% of KPC after selling 65% in an initial public offering earlier this year, and Uganda National Oil Company holds 20.15%. Ruto has defended the sale.
In the Horn of Africa, Dangote joined Djibouti’s President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on 24 September at the Damerjog Industrial Development Free Trade Zone. There they broke ground on the $660 million Damerjog-Dewele Oil Terminal and Pipeline Project. Abiy said the project will be developed by Ethiopian Investment Holdings, the state’s strategic investment arm, and Dangote Group. The Ethiopian prime minister’s office described a 120-kilometre multiproduct pipeline from Damerjog in Djibouti to Dewele in Ethiopia. It will have about 375,000 cubic metres of storage at Damerjog and 800,000 cubic metres at Dewele. The office said the line should be operating within 18 months.
The group’s largest commitment in Ethiopia is a urea complex at Gode, in the Somali region, designed to produce 3 million tonnes a year. Ethiopian Investment Holdings and Dangote Group signed a shareholders’ agreement in August 2025. It gave Dangote Group 60% and the Ethiopian state 40%, at an initial cost of $2.5 billion, with natural gas to come from the Hilal and Calub reserves. In a statement in May, Dangote Group said the investment had risen to more than $4 billion after Dangote and Abiy inspected construction at the site. The group said the expanded scope adds a 110-kilometre pipeline, a 120-megawatt power plant, a polypropylene packaging facility and a 2-million-tonne NPK blending plant.
In Southern Africa, Dangote and Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah launched the Dangote Namibia Tank Farm and Regional Pipeline Project outside Walvis Bay on 4 November. Dangote said the project will cost $2.5 billion. The tank farm will hold 360 million litres of diesel and 240 million litres of petrol, and Dangote told reporters that construction would take 18 to 20 months.
The group plans a 1,700-kilometre pipeline inland towards Otjiwarongo, Rundu, Ghanzi and Francistown. It said the wider distribution network is intended to serve Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and the southern Democratic Republic of Congo. “We want to invest heavily so that landlocked countries can access petroleum products at cheaper prices,” Dangote said at the launch.
Dangote Cement operates plants in 11 African countries with installed capacity of 55 million tonnes a year. At its capital markets day it reaffirmed a target of 80 million tonnes by 2030. In February it signed a $1 billion agreement with China’s Sinoma Engineering covering 12 projects in seven countries: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Sierra Leone and Cameroon.
The company’s results for the nine months to 30 September show profit after tax up 31.2% to N974.8 billion ($714 million). Revenue rose 19.6% to N3.77 trillion ($2.76 billion). Operating cash flow of N1.83 trillion ($1.34 billion) allowed the company to cut borrowings. It moved from net debt of N682.9 billion ($500 million) at the end of 2025 to net cash of N51.1 billion ($37 million) at the end of September.
Group volumes rose 9.4% to 22.1 million tonnes. Sales outside Nigeria rose 14% to 9.1 million tonnes, led by Senegal, up 30%, Ethiopia, up 19%, and Tanzania, up 9%. The new grinding plant in Côte d’Ivoire sold 530,000 tonnes, while sales in Cameroon fell 9.8% and Ghana also declined. Cement and clinker exports from Nigeria rose 41.8% to 1.5 million tonnes. The company said the 6-million-tonne first phase of its Itori plant in Ogun State remains on track.
North Africa may be next. Egypt’s presidential spokesman, Mohamed El-Shennawy, said President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi met Dangote in New Alamein on 3 October. The two discussed investment in energy, fertilisers, chemicals and cement, and Dangote asked for government support. The presidency said no agreement was signed and no value or timetable was set. At a press conference at the Egyptian Exchange in Cairo on 15 October, Dangote said the group plans to invest $10 billion to $15 billion in Egypt. Egypt’s minister of investment and foreign trade, Mohamed Farid Saleh, visited Dangote Industries’ Lagos headquarters on 1 November to continue the talks.
What to watch
- Allotment of the refinery’s public offer and the date its shares begin trading on the Nigerian Exchange.
- Progress at Lamu against the 40-month build. The size of Kenya’s stake and which other regional governments take up the 30% on offer.
- First fuel through the Damerjog-Dewele pipeline, due within 18 months of the September groundbreaking.
- Construction of the Namibia tank farm against Dangote’s 18 to 20 month timeline, and any agreements with neighbouring states on the pipeline route.
- Whether Dangote Group confirms plans for a refined products pipeline along the West African coast to Ghana, including its cost, route and timetable.
- Commissioning of the first phase of the Itori cement plant, and whether talks in Egypt produce a named project.