LAGOS, Nigeria, June 15, 2026/APO Group/ –Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) (www.AfricaFC.org), the continent’s infrastructure solutions provider, is helping drive a US$7 billion fertiliser expansion programme by Dangote Group designed to triple production capacity in Nigeria and establish a major new manufacturing platform in Ethiopia.

As a cornerstone commitment to the programme, AFC is providing a US$600 million facility to Greenview Fertiliser Corp. (Greenview), Dangote’s fertiliser holding company. The transaction deepens AFC’s longstanding partnership with Dangote Group across some of Africa’s most consequential industrial projects. AFC was Co-Coordinating Bank on a US$3 billion syndicated loan for Dangote Refinery and recently received full repayment of its foundational US$300 million senior term loan to Dangote Industries Limited, which helped advance the refinery from concept to reality. The redeployment at double this amount into Dangote Group underscores AFC’s model of providing early-stage risk capital before recycling into the next generation of transformative projects once assets reach stable, cash-generative operations.

The fertiliser investment positions Africa to get ahead of structural trends shaping long-term development priorities, including rapid population growth, rising food demand, climate-related pressures on agricultural systems and the need to capture greater value from natural resources. Recent disruptions to global supply chains and commodity markets have further underscored the risks associated with dependence on imported agricultural inputs. Despite holding some of the world’s largest natural gas reserves and a quarter of its uncultivated arable land, Africa remains reliant on imported fertilizer, making expanded production critical to food security and agricultural resilience.

Dangote’s expansion programme is projected to increase urea fertiliser production capacity in Nigeria from 3 million metric tonnes per annum (“MTPA”) to 9 MTPA, while adding a new 3 MTPA urea fertiliser plant in Ethiopia. It is expected to strengthen regional food security, support agricultural productivity, reduce dependence on imported fertilizer and bolster the continent’s position as a supplier to international markets.

Commenting on the transaction, Aliko Dangote, President and Chief Executive of Dangote Industries Limited, said: “This investment marks another important milestone in our long-standing partnership with AFC as we embark on the next phase of Dangote Fertilizer’s growth. Expanding our fertiliser production capacity in Nigeria and developing a new plant in Ethiopia will strengthen Africa’s food security, support agricultural productivity, and deepen the continent’s industrial base. AFC has consistently supported Dangote Group at critical stages of our growth, and its renewed commitment reflects confidence in our vision to build globally competitive African industrial platforms”.

Samaila Zubairu, President & CEO of AFC, said: “The question before Africa is simple: how will we feed 2.5 billion people by 2050? Africa’s 1.5 billion people consume just 6 million tonnes of urea annually, compared to 40 million tonnes in India and 50 million tonnes in China, despite having similar-sized populations. Closing this productivity gap is essential to Africa’s food security. By supporting the development of the world’s largest fertiliser platform, AFC is helping build the foundation for Africa to feed itself, create productive jobs and strengthen our economic sovereignty. This is not just an investment in fertilizer production. It is evidence of the Africa we are building.”

AFC has played a catalytic role across multiple phases of Dangote Group’s industrial growth, partnering with Access Bank in 2024 to provide Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE’s first working capital facility, supporting crude procurement for commissioning and initial production.

The latest financing reflects AFC’s focus on investments that strengthen the systems underpinning long-term economic growth, including energy, transport, logistics, industrial processing and food security. Alongside investments in strategic transport corridors, ports, power generation and industrial platforms, AFC continues to support projects that increase Africa’s capacity to produce, process and distribute critical goods domestically while expanding exports to regional and international markets.

LAGOS, Nigeria, June 15, 2026/APO Group/ –First WATT Renewable Limited (www.WATTRenewables.com) and MTN Nigeria have announced a strategic renewable energy infrastructure partnership designed to reduce diesel dependence, improve operational resilience at MTN’s critical facilities and supply renewable energy systems to power electric vehicle charging infrastructure across selected MTN locations in Nigeria.

 

The programme comprises two major project components. The first is an Energy- as- a- Service deployment that will provide approximately 34 MWp of solar photovoltaic as a generation capacity and 40 MWh of battery energy storage across selected MTN facilities nationwide. These sites include data centres, switch facilities, cable landing stations, customer service centres and other network critical locations.

The second is the supply of renewable energy infrastructure to power 60 kW EV charging stations across eight MTN facilities located at Ikoyi, Matori, Ojota, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Asaba, Kano and Ibadan

Together, both components are designed to reduce dependence on diesel-based systems, lower operating emissions, support operational uptime, strengthen business continuity, and increase the contribution of renewable energy across MTN’s operational sites, including selected EV charging locations.

As digital demand continues to grow, reliable energy infrastructure remains critical to the performance of telecommunications networks and the wider digital economy. This partnership will support MTN Nigeria’s efforts to strengthen the resilience of critical operations while increasing the use of renewable energy across selected facilities.

Based on current project assumptions, the programme is expected to support the avoidance of an estimated 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (tCO ₂e) over five years, subject to operational performance and final emissions calculations.

Commenting on the partnership, Oluwole Eweje, Chief Executive Officer of WATT Renewable Corporation, said:

“This partnership is a defining milestone for First WATT and an important step in strengthening the energy infrastructure that supports Nigeria’s digital economy. By deploying solar photovoltaic generation and battery energy storage across selected MTN facilities, we are helping to improve energy reliability at critical locations where uptime is essential.

“The EV charging component also demonstrates how renewable energy infrastructure can support Nigeria’s transition to lower-carbon mobility. By providing renewable power systems for EV charging sites, this programme helps address one of the key requirements for wider EV adoption: reliable and cleaner energy supply.”

Speaking on the initiative, Tobechukwu Okigbo, Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer at MTN Nigeria, said:

“As Nigeria’s energy and mobility landscape evolves, renewable energy will play an important role in building cleaner and more reliable infrastructure. This partnership supports our efforts to reduce diesel dependence, improve operational efficiency, and strengthen the resilience of the systems that power connectivity.

“It is also aligned with Project Zero, under our Doing for Planet sustainability pillar, through which we are focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving energy efficiency, and increasing the use of renewable energy across our operations.”

LAGOS, Nigeria, June 12, 2026/APO Group/ –Arridex (www.Arridex.com), formerly RusselSmith, recently announced its formal change of name, registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria. The change reflects the significant expansion of the organisation’s capabilities and the breadth of industries it now serves, which extend well beyond the oil and gas services with which it began operations in the early 2000s.

 

Founded as an asset integrity company serving Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, the organisation has grown into a multi-sector industrial technology group operating across oil and gas, maritime, aerospace, defence, construction, and manufacturing. Its subsidiaries cover engineering and construction delivery, autonomous systems development, and advanced technology products, in addition to its industrial additive manufacturing and asset integrity operations.

The organisation holds Pioneer Status in additive manufacturing, granted by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), and is the first company qualified by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) for additive manufacturing deployment in the oil and gas sector. Both represent formal recognition of Arridex’s capabilities and its role in building indigenous industrial capacity at scale. With more than twenty years of continuous delivery, Arridex holds certification to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018, underpinning an integrated management system that governs its operations across all sectors, and has recorded zero lost time incidents across over seven million man hours of operations.

The name change coincides with a significant operational milestone. The Arridex Omnifactory, West Africa’s first multi-technology industrial additive manufacturing facility, has been commissioned in Lagos. The Omnifactory integrates multiple additive manufacturing technologies including Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF), Cold Spray, Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) under one roof, enabling on-demand production of industrial components, spares, and improved part designs for critical industries. The Omnifactory’s large-format additive manufacturing capabilities also enable the production of large-scale structures, including full-size marine components. Its commissioning is the clearest measure of the distance that Arridex has travelled from its origins.

Africa’s critical industries have for decades depended on components and specialist expertise imported from outside the continent, with supply chains that routinely extend across multiple jurisdictions and lead times that affect operational continuity for asset owners when dealing with legacy parts. The Omnifactory manufactures industrial components and parts on demand in Lagos, helping to build operational resilience in critical industries.

Kayode Adeleke, Group Chief Executive Officer of Arridex, said: “The name RusselSmith defined what we were at the start. Arridex defines what we have built. The dependency of African industry on fragile supply chains is a structural problem that this continent has accepted for too long. The Omnifactory is a concrete answer to the challenge of manufacturing sovereignty. Arridex is the name of the company built over two decades and raised intentionally to enable industrial resilience in Africa.”

Arridex is a Designated Strategic Partner of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC) and serves clients across Nigeria and the wider African region. The organisation has a joint venture partnership with the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) for military-grade additive manufacturing, is a member of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and is also a member of the Defence Industries Association of Nigeria (DIAN). With the Omnifactory commissioning in June 2026, Arridex enters its next phase of operations under a name that reflects the full scope of what it has built.