November 15, (THEWILL) – Nigeria is attracting manufacturing investments across building materials, cement, electric vehicles, petrochemicals and industrial infrastructure. They could expand domestic production and reduce imports, provided announced financing translates into operating factories.
Five projects involving Veenocks, Lee Group, Lafarge Africa, Hybrid Motors and Dangote Group illustrate the opportunity.
Afreximbank has provided Veenocks Limited with an $81.9m senior term loan to expand its porcelain tile factory in Sagamu, Ogun State. The $145m-project is expected to raise annual capacity from 3.3 million to 9.9 million square metres and create 300 additional direct jobs. The existing facility employs more than 200 people.
Afreximbank had earlier provided a $2m project preparation facility in August 2024 for feasibility studies, which it said was repaid from the senior loan.
Veenocks plans to target eight African markets: Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Cameroon, Ghana, Mauritania and Senegal. The plant could also support regional exports.
However, the $81.9m loan is only part of the estimated project cost. The remaining financing, construction schedule and equipment installation will determine when additional capacity becomes operational.
Lee Group’s First Industrial Park is planned for a 450-hectare site spanning Sagamu and Obafemi-Owode local government areas in Ogun State, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It is designed to accommodate more than 29 factories producing detergents, footwear, food, cosmetics, plastics and leather products, among others.
The developers project more than 2,500 direct and indirect jobs. Planned shared facilities include warehouses, power and utility infrastructure, logistics services and administrative offices.
The announced investment is $1.8bn, while the project has also been associated with a projected gross development value of $3bn. These are different measures, and neither proves that the full amount has been spent. Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun was scheduled to perform the groundbreaking on November 12, 2026.
Its contribution will depend on infrastructure delivery, tenant commitments and factories being built; a groundbreaking does not guarantee production.
Lafarge Africa has started plans to expand its Sagamu plant in Ogun State and Ashaka plant in Gombe State. Its investor presentation estimates the investment at $250m, targeting an additional 4.5 million tonnes of annual capacity. Sagamu’s capacity is expected to rise from one million to 3.5 million tonnes, while Ashaka is expected to increase from one million to two million tonnes. Lafarge noted that the existing one-million-tonne Sagamu capacity is currently mothballed. Total Nigerian capacity is expected to rise from 10.5 million to 14 million tonnes after expansion.
Lafarge estimated a 12-month implementation period and more than 5,000 indirect construction-phase jobs. Actual output will depend on construction, energy, raw materials and logistics.
Hybrid Motors Nigeria announced a $95m investment to develop electric vehicle manufacturing operations and charging infrastructure in Lagos and Abuja. The company’s reported plan allocates $75m to manufacturing facilities and $20m to charging infrastructure.
Under its partnership with Chinese engineering firm Launch Design Shanghai, the proposed plants are expected to have combined annual capacity of 70,000 vehicles at full maturity over about 10 years: 50,000 in Lagos and 20,000 in Abuja.
This is a long-term capacity target, not current production. The company has also outlined an initial production target of 7,000 vehicles in its first year. It said construction was underway, targeting a Q1 2027 factory unveiling.
The project could create activity in vehicle assembly, engineering and charging services. Its domestic value will depend on local sourcing, technology transfer, affordability and charging-network reliability. The company has not publicly disclosed its expenditure to date.
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Dangote Group’s planned petrochemical expansion could supply inputs to several manufacturing industries. In April 2026, it announced a partnership with Honeywell to expand production at its Lekki complex.
The plans include an additional 750,000 tonnes of propylene annually, a feedstock used to make polypropylene and other products, and 400,000 tonnes of linear alkylbenzene, an ingredient in detergents and cleaning products. Honeywell will provide process technologies and catalysts. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The expansion builds on Dangote’s existing polypropylene operation, which has annual capacity of 830,000 tonnes and began production in March 2025. Additional supply could support plastics, packaging and household-product businesses and reduce imported-input exposure. The new capacities are not yet available production.
The projects span building materials, industrial infrastructure, cement, electric mobility and petrochemicals. But announced investment and projected capacity are not completed output.
Manufacturers spent N1.34tn on alternative electricity in 2025, up from N1.11tn in 2024, according to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. The association has put energy at about 40 percent of manufacturing operating costs.
Borrowing costs, foreign exchange exposure, expensive machinery, transport bottlenecks and unreliable electricity can delay commissioning and undermine competitiveness.
The projects should therefore be assessed by capital deployed, construction milestones, equipment installed, jobs created and output delivered. Their real contribution will depend on whether factories operate consistently, sustainably, source more inputs locally and compete on price, quality and reliability. It also requires dependable demand, access to working capital and policies that make locally produced inputs commercially viable for downstream manufacturers against imported alternatives.
Ogochukwu Onwaeze is a writer specializing in business and economic journalism. At THEWILL News Media, she translates market trends, financial developments, and policy shifts into clear and engaging stories.