Africa's richest man is weighing major new investments in Tanzania

Tanzania has formally instructed government ministries and agencies to begin technical discussions with Aliko Dangote's team on a series of potential large-scale investments in fertiliser production, energy and transport infrastructure, following talks between Africa's richest man and President Samia Suluhu Hassan that confirmed Tanzania's determination to remain in the running for the region's most consequential industrial investments.

President Samia delivered the instruction after meeting Dangote and his delegation in Dar es Salaam, directing relevant state institutions to engage immediately on the proposed projects to ensure they align with Tanzania's development agenda and legal framework. The directive signals a move from exploratory diplomatic engagement into active project development, with government technical teams now mandated to work through the commercial and regulatory dimensions of each investment area Dangote's group has identified.

Dangote described the potential he sees in Tanzania with the directness of a man who has been doing large industrial deals on the continent for four decades. "We have identified areas that can deliver significant value for Tanzania, and we are ready to work together to develop them for mutual benefit," he said. He added that the country has strong potential for industries that process local resources rather than exporting raw materials, a framing consistent with the industrial philosophy that underpins everything from his cement empire to the Lekki refinery.

The three sectors at the centre of the discussions are fertiliser production, energy and transport infrastructure. Each one connects to a stated national priority in Tanzania's development agenda.

On fertiliser, the potential impact is immediate and practical. East African farmers, including the millions of smallholder producers who anchor Tanzania's agricultural economy, continue to rely almost entirely on imported fertiliser, exposing them to global price volatility and supply disruptions whenever international markets are affected. A local fertiliser plant anchored by Dangote's technical and commercial capabilities would reduce that dependence and could lower production costs, improve food security and potentially position Tanzania as a supplier of agricultural inputs across the East African Community. Dangote's fertiliser complex in Nigeria is one of Africa's largest industrial projects, producing millions of tonnes annually for both domestic consumption and export, and the company has been steadily extending its African footprint in fertiliser distribution and manufacturing.

Energy is where Tanzania's own resource base becomes the critical variable. The country holds significant offshore and onshore natural gas reserves, particularly around Mtwara in the south, and successive governments have positioned those deposits as the foundation for future industrial growth. Fertiliser production specifically depends on large volumes of natural gas as a feedstock, making Tanzania's gas reserves a natural enabler of the kind of downstream industrial investment Dangote's group would consider. The intersection of gas resources, land availability and port access in the Mtwara region has attracted interest from multiple international industrial investors and gives Tanzania a structural advantage in attracting capital for energy-intensive manufacturing.

Dangote's existing footprint in Tanzania gives both sides a proven foundation to build from. His cement factory in Mtwara, one of the largest single industrial investments in the country, has operated for years, supplies cement to Tanzania and neighbouring markets and has built the operational and regulatory relationship between Dangote Group and the Tanzanian government that makes more complex future investment discussions easier to navigate.

The broader strategic context for Tanzania's urgency is a competition with Kenya that both sides have acknowledged explicitly. Kenya has been pursuing Dangote's proposed East African refinery aggressively, with President William Ruto having made repeated public statements about his commitment to hosting the facility. Dangote expressed a preference for Kenya's Mombasa location at one point because of its deeper port infrastructure and higher domestic fuel consumption, prompting Samia to publicly question why she had not been consulted before a refinery ostensibly planned for Tanzania's Tanga port was announced as a Mombasa project. The direct meeting in Dar es Salaam was Tanzania's corrective move. The instruction to ministries to begin technical work is the follow-through.

Dangote, who has described the proposed East African refinery as a project contingent on government commitments including equity participation, land, infrastructure support and protection against cheap import dumping, has left the door open for Tanzania explicitly. "It doesn't matter where the location is, and Tanzania, we have offered Tanzania to also be a part owner of this refinery," he said in comments following his Dar es Salaam meeting. Technical teams from his group were expected to arrive in Tanzania within a week to begin working on the proposed projects, covering both the refinery site question and the fertiliser and energy investment discussions separately from it.

Whether Tanzania ultimately lands the refinery, the fertiliser plant or both will depend on how quickly the technical discussions produce bankable project frameworks. Dangote has been clear that he does not require governments to fund his investments but that he does require them to create the conditions under which those investments can work commercially: land, infrastructure access, gas supply arrangements and some form of protection against foreign competition for the products he would produce. Tanzania's instruction to its ministries is the first formal signal that it is prepared to move from diplomatic reception of Dangote's proposals into the harder work of making them viable.