Tanzania is aggressively courting multi-billion dollar investment commitments from Nigeria’s Dangote Group for a massive urea fertilizer complex, a 2,000-megawatt power plant, and regional transport infrastructure.
The expansion plans were disclosed in a statement following an official delegation visit led by Tanzania Planning Minister Prof. Kitila A. Mkumbo to the Dangote Refinery facility in Lagos, Nigeria.
The diplomatic pitch builds directly on high-level negotiations between Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan and industrialist Aliko Dangote in Dar es Salaam to expand the conglomerate’s East African footprint.
Dangote Group currently operates an $800 million cement plant in Mtwara—the largest in Tanzania—with a three-million-tonne annual production capacity, anchoring its existing manufacturing footprint in the country.
Tanzania seeks to leverage Dangote’s expertise from his $2.5 billion Lagos plant—which produces 3 million metric tonnes of urea annually—to curb its own $379 million annual fertilizer import dependency.
“Africa now needs economic liberation, and that can only come through industrialisation,” stated Prof. Mkumbo during the Lagos facility tour, advocating for deeper cross-border trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The mega-project basket encompasses a Special Economic Zone, new port infrastructure, and a vital transport corridor connecting Mtwara to Mbamba Bay to boost regional industrial capacity and energy security.
The high-stakes push comes weeks after Dangote selected neighboring Kenya for a separate $15-17 billion oil refinery, driving Tanzania to forcefully secure mega-investments in chemical manufacturing and power generation instead.
