Africa's richest man unveils plans for a 2,000-megawatt power plant, fertiliser complex and a new port in Tanzania

Aliko Dangote and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan have agreed on a roadmap for a multi-billion-dollar investment push spanning energy, fertiliser and transport infrastructure, with Africa's richest man disclosing plans for a 2,000-megawatt coal-fired power plant, a urea fertiliser complex and new port development inside Tanzanian borders.

The two leaders met at State House in Dar es Salaam on June 29, 2026, where Dangote laid out a project pipeline considerably broader than the cement operation that has anchored his presence in the country for years. Disclosures shared with Kenyan outlet Kenyans.co.ke indicate Dangote Industries Limited is now eyeing port development, the large-scale coal power plant, and the fertiliser facility, alongside a proposed 40-kilometre concrete access road designed to ease congestion around Tanzania's busiest ports.

A transport corridor running 812 kilometres from Mtwara to Mbamba Bay in southern Tanzania is also on the table, intended to streamline movement of raw materials and finished products across the country. A special trade zone has been proposed as part of the broader package. President Samia moved quickly after the meeting, directing her Minister of Planning and Investment, Kitila Mkumbo, to coordinate negotiations and lead discussions from the Tanzanian government's side. A delegation from Dar es Salaam is expected to travel to Nigeria in the coming weeks to refine the details and map out implementation timelines.

The scale of the new proposals extends well beyond Dangote Group's existing Tanzanian footprint. The company already operates a $500 million cement plant in Mtwara, producing approximately three million tonnes annually for both the domestic market and export to neighbouring countries. That facility, in operation for years, has given Dangote the operational relationships and regulatory familiarity with Tanzania that made the broader investment conversation possible.

The meeting also gave Dangote an opportunity to address directly the diplomatic episode that complicated his relationship with Tanzania earlier in 2026. His planned East African oil refinery, one of the most closely watched industrial investment decisions on the continent, is now heading to Lamu, Kenya, rather than Tanzania. Dangote cited commercial and technical factors behind that decision while explicitly inviting the Tanzanian government to take an equity stake in the Kenyan refinery project regardless of where it is ultimately sited.

The refinery saga had its origins in a diplomatic misstep. President William Ruto announced during a Nairobi infrastructure summit that the mega-refinery would be built in Tanga, Tanzania, only for President Samia to publicly reveal she had never approved any such plan. The resulting friction prompted Dangote to pivot toward Mombasa, citing the port's greater depth and Kenya's higher domestic fuel consumption, while leaving the final site decision in Nairobi's hands. Kenya subsequently added Lamu to its list of potential refinery locations, and that appears to be where the project has now settled.

The Dangote-Samia meeting represents Tanzania's clearest path yet to securing a different but equally significant tranche of Dangote capital, even after losing the refinery competition to Kenya. A 2,000-megawatt coal-fired power plant would be a transformative addition to Tanzania's energy generation capacity, while a urea fertiliser plant would extend Dangote's African fertiliser strategy, already anchored by his massive complex in Nigeria, into a new East African market with a large agricultural base that remains heavily dependent on imported fertiliser.

For Dangote, the Tanzania pivot illustrates a broader pattern in how he has approached negotiations with East African governments throughout 2026: pursuing parallel investment tracks across multiple countries simultaneously, allowing commercial and technical considerations to determine where specific projects land, while keeping the door open for governments that lose one competition to participate in another. Whether the power plant, fertiliser complex and port investments translate into signed agreements and construction timelines will depend on the technical negotiations Minister Mkumbo has now been tasked with leading, and on the outcome of the Tanzanian delegation's forthcoming visit to Nigeria.