Ethiopia Partners with Nigerian Billionaire Dangote on Fertilizer Plant, Prime Minister Says

Ethiopia will establish a fertilizer production plant in partnership with Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed confirmed today, signaling a deepening of regional economic ties amid continued efforts to stabilize the country's economy. He said the project would begin in the coming months and would be completed in a little over three years.

"This was the reason he (Aliko) was flying back and forth in recent months," Abiy said

The announcement came during a pivotal address to Parliament delivered just hours after the government formally concluded a $3.5 billion debt restructuring agreement with official creditors under the G20 Common Framework initiative. Abiy said that as many as 20,000 development projects were slated for completion over the next two months. These include a domestic gas production facility in Somali Regional State developed in partnership with the Chinese government and the final stages of construction on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

The speech, delivered ahead of lawmakers’ ratification of a historic 1.93 trillion Birr federal budget, was also marked by a confident assessment of the government’s sweeping macroeconomic reforms backed by an IMF four-year economic program. Abiy praised the July 2024 shift to a market-based exchange rate regime as a “bold and calculated” decision made despite the political risks posed by looming national elections.

“Other governments would not unify their currency if an election were next year,” the prime minister said, framing the policy shift as a signal of his administration’s long-term commitment to economic liberalization.

He also urged private bondholders to align with official creditors, referencing the stalled negotiations over a potential haircut on Ethiopia’s $1 billion Eurobond. Debt servicing, he warned, continues to place an outsized burden on the national budget and is projected to consume nearly 40 percent of recurrent expenditures in the upcoming fiscal year.

The Dangote partnership, if realized, would represent one of the most high-profile cross-border industrial investments in Ethiopia in recent years, and a significant step toward self-sufficiency in agricultural inputs.