Ethiopia among the countries targeted in Dangote's expansion plan
The Nigeria-based cement manufacturer, controlled by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, plans to invest the funds over the next four years to boost its overall production and export capacity across the continent, according to a report by Business Insider Africa
Citing remarks by the company’s Chief Financial Officer Gbenga Fapohunda during an investor conference call in Lagos, the report said the deal covers 12 projects in seven African countries which among them are Nigeria and Ethiopia and is aimed at supporting the company’s plan to boost its overall production capacity by about 45%, from 55.17 million tons to 80 million tonnes annually and also raise exports of cement and clinker up from an estimated 1.4 million tons in 2025 to 10 million tons by 2030, even though the company has already expanded its export activities, dispatching 34 shiploads of clinker from Nigeria to countries including Cameroon and Ghana in the past year. As part of the expansion drive, the company recently signed a $1 billion agreement with Sinoma International Engineering of China to construct new cement plants and expand its existing facilities across Africa.
The company’s Group Managing Director, Arvind Pathak, said the firm plans to continue commissioning new production capacity and advancing expansion projects in several African markets, including Ethiopia, as demand for cement across the continent continues to grow. “We are confident in our growth trajectory and our ability to capitalize on Africa’s robust cement demand fundamentals,” Pathak said in an earnings release cited by the report.
In addition to its cement expansion plans, Dangote Group has also announced another major investment ambitions in Ethiopia’s fertilizer sector along side to a strategic technical partnership signed with Saipem, Engineers India Limited and other firms back in November 2025 to develop a large-scale fertilizer plant and also another strategic technical partnership to build fertilizer plant in Gode, Somali Regional State for US$2.5 billion with Ethiopia Investment Holdings (EIH), the government's strategic investment am, signed back in August 2025, with EIH holding a 40% equity stake and Dangote Group holding 60% ownership. It is designed to produce three million metric tons of urea annually and is expected to rank among the five largest urea production complexes globally and to be the largest industrial project of its kind in Ethiopia. It is presented by the company as a key step toward supporting food security and industrial growth in Ethiopia and across Africa while expanding its existing fertilizer operations in Nigeria, according to a report by Vanguard Newspaper.
The expansion announcement comes as Dangote Cement reported the record of its financial results for 2025. According to figures cited by the report, the company’s net profit rose to about one trillion Nigerian naira (approximately $730 million), more than doubling the previous year’s performance, while revenue increased by 20.3%, to about 4.3 trillion naira (around $3.14 billion).