Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man has filed an application to build what will in effect become the biggest, deepest port in Nigeria. “Dangote wants to build a seaport in Ogun State to facilitate exports, including liquefied natural gas,” announces a media report shared this week. The move is expected to accelerate expansion of Dangote’s conglomerate.

The plans for the seaport come following an impasse with the government to use one of Nigeria’s free trade zones for his mega oil refinery and petrochemical plant.

“Should it be realized, the proposed seaport  will connect Dangote group’s logistics and export operations in Lagos, including Lekki Deep Sea Port, through which it currently ships petroleum products and fertilisers overseas,” the report details.

“It’s not that we want to do everything by ourselves, but I think doing this will encourage other entrepreneurs to come into it,”  Dangote is quoted as saying.

Investing in LNG exports requires the laying of pipelines from the Niger Delta, all the way to Lagos; “an ambitious pursuit intended to overtake Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) as Africa’s biggest LNG exporter,” reads the report.

Seconding his CEO, Devakumar Edwin, vice president of the group said; “We want to do a major project to bring more gas than what NLNG is doing today. We know where there is a lot of gas, so run a pipeline all through and then bring it to the shore.”

The construction of the deep-sea port in the Olokola Free Trade Zone, about 100 kilometers from Lagos, was first announced in March of this year. “Ogun State, where Olokola is located, is Nigeria’s second-largest manufacturing hub after Lagos,” local media reports.

The state is home to several Dangote cement plants and other industries and so “the planned port fits into the group’s broader strategy to control the value chain, complementing the company’s 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery and urea plant in Lekki.”

According to Ecofine, a Nigerian economics agency, the proposed new terminal is expected to support liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, that will be enabled by another proposed pipeline that will link the Niger Delta to the southern coast.

“It will also serve as a hub for fertilizer shipments, which are currently routed through Dangote’s private jetty in Lekki,” the agency reports.

Overall, the port will improve the connection between the group’s industrial assets and West African markets. Further, local media says the Olokola project will also help ease congestion at Lagos’s busy Apapa and Tin Can Island ports, which have long struggled with logistics bottlenecks.

“At the same time, it may become a direct competitor to the Lekki Deep Sea Port, commissioned in 2023, which targets similar cargo segments such as containers, dry bulk, liquid bulk, and petroleum products,” local media writes.

Sector analysts go on to point out that despite potential competition, the proximity of the two ports could instead lead to synergies if such action is properly coordinated.

Notably the Dangote Group of companies is famed for exports of fertiliser to the US, Brazil, Mexico, India, among other destinations. Looking forward, the group recently disclosed plans to set up a fertiliser plant in Ethiopia; “which will help Africa’s second most populous nation develop production capacity,” the vice president explained.

The ambitionus plan is expected to topple Qatar as the foremost manufacturer of urea in the next three years or so. “This will also make Africa self-sufficient in fertiliser within the same time frame,” he detailed.

Today, the 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery is the continent’s largest and began operations in 2024. Along with this oil depot, the Dangote Group is also constructing storage tanks to hold a minimum of 1.6 million litres of petrol and diesel in Namibia.

Dangote says he plans to list the petrochemical business on the local stock exchange in Lagos this year and then  refinery on the bourse next year.

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The Dangote Group is a Nigerian multinational industrial conglomerate, founded by Aliko Dangote back in 1971. According to Bloomberg, today, Dangote Group of companies is the largest conglomerate in West Africa and one of the largest on the African continent.

“The group employs more than 30,000 people, generating revenue in excess of US$4.1 billion,” reads the Bloomberg report.

The Dangote Group was created on the backbone of a venture that traded sugar and other consumer goods, that started with a mere USD$3,000 loan.

“The group would gradually expand into trading other commodities, such as rice…and in 1981, Dangote established two business enterprises, Dangote Nigeria Limited, and Blue Star Services,” details the report.

According to the report, the firm then sought to acquire import licenses for various commodities including steel, baby food, and aluminium products.

“He then added the shipping and the importing of cement to his group’s portfolio competing with Lafarge, a French company that imported and produced the bulk of African cement,” it details.

In a visionary move to reduce economic and political risk within the country, says the report, the group began looking for opportunities to expand beyond Nigeria.

“The company’s strategy then focused on continental expansion with the building and acquisition of cement plants in African countries,” it details.

Notably, today, the Dangote Group is a diversified conglomerate, headquartered in Lagos, with interests across a range of sectors in Africa.

Current interests of the Dangote Group include cement, sugar, flour, salt, seasoning, pasta, beverages and real estate, with new projects in development in oil and natural gas, telecommunications, fertilizer and steel.