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Nigerian company also signs deal to construct gas pipeline
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government plans to make Ethiopia a major African fertiliser producer after signing a US$2.5 billion agreement with Nigeria’s Dangote Group to build one of the world’s largest fertiliser plants.
Abiy says that the complex, which will be in Gode in Somali Regional State, close to unexploited gas deposits, will produce three million metric tons of fertiliser each year and is ‘a decisive step in our path to food sovereignty’. More than 70% of Ethiopian workers are employed in agriculture, most of them smallholders.
The agreement also features plans to build a long-delayed pipeline to transport natural gas from the Calub and Hilala gas fields, though it is still unclear how close to production those sites in eastern Ethiopia are.
In July, Abiy told parliamentarians in Addis Ababa that they would be producing gas soon and that a fertiliser facility would be operational after 40 months, setting early 2029 as the target date. Dangote Group already has a cement plant in Ethiopia, indicating that unlike previous schemes it has a good chance of seeing the project through to completion.
The investment deal is a major boost for Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote whose group will own 60% of the venture and is emerging as a rival to Morocco’s parastatal OCP group – which was previously planning a fertiliser plant in Ethiopia – as the continent’s main fertiliser manufacturer.
The Gode facility will be the second fertiliser complex built by Dangote, with the first in the Lekki Free Trade Zone on the edge of Lagos (AC Vol 65 No 17, Dangote and Tinubu wrestle over the future of oil). The deal marks ‘a pivotal moment in our shared vision to industrialise Africa and achieve food security,’ said Dangote.
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