AFC backs $7bn Dangote fertilizer project

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) is backing a $7 billion expansion of Dangote Group’s fertilizer business to triple urea capacity in Nigeria and build a new plant in Ethiopia, in a major push to shore up Africa’s food security. AFC is providing a $600 million facility to Greenview Fertilizer Corp., Dangote’s fertilizer holding company, anchoring a programme that will lift Nigerian urea output from 3 million t/y to 9 million t/y and add a 3 M t/y unit in Ethiopia.

The deal extends AFC’s long relationship with Dangote, including a $3 billion syndicated loan for the Dangote Refinery and an initial $300 million term loan that has now been fully repaid and effectively recycled into new projects. AFC and Dangote frame the fertilizer build-out as a response to rapid population growth, rising food demand and supply-chain shocks that have exposed Africa’s reliance on imported fertilizer.