Africa Tops the List in Belt & Road Investment Engagement

According to a January report on the Construction Briefing website, construction contracts and investment in China’s Belt & Road Initiative grew by 75% in 2025, to a record $213 billion, which puts the current world total of BRI engagement at $1.4 trillion. Africa’s share of world BRI investment last year reached $61.2 billion, an increase of 283% over the previous year, and ranking Africa at the top for the year. Among the major contracts accounting for this growth is a $23 billion oil and gas-development project in the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville).

These estimated figures are from a study done by Australia’s Griffith University and the Green Finance & Development Center in Shanghai. The Africa contracts were a part of the world total of 350 deals in 2025, 19% more than the year prior. Christoph Nedopil Wang, a China energy and finance expert at Griffith University and the study’s author, said: “The megaprojects are something we hadn’t seen before. The willingness to trust China, from the infrastructure planners and policy-makers, is substantial.”

Madagascar Seeks To Become BRICS Partner Country

Madagascar could become a partner nation in BRICS, according to a recent statement by interim President Col. Michael Randrianirina. He visited South Africa over the weekend of Jan. 16, where he held talks on this matter and other topics with President Cyril Ramaphosa. “The South African President has accepted our request to make Madagascar one of the BRICS partner countries,” Randrianirina told the TVM television channel. He added that he will attend the BRICS summit in India scheduled for June.

If Madagascar is named a partner country, it will join Algeria, Nigeria, and Uganda as fellow African BRICS Partners.

Tanzania Launches Africa’s Largest Inland Ship on Lake Victoria

On January 23 Tanzania’s Prime Minister, Dr. Mwigulu Nchemba, led the ceremony that put into service the passenger-vehicle ferry MV New Mwanza, Africa’s largest inland ship, which will transport passengers across Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater lake. With a length of 92.6 meters and a dead weight of 3,500 tons, the boat is three times larger than the next-largest such vessel. Its four decks will accommodate up to 1,200 passengers, 20 vehicles, and 400 tons of cargo. With a speed of 16 knots (approximately 30 km/h), it will significantly reduce crossing times between the port of Bukoba and other ports in Tanzania, as well as serving the Kenyan port of Kisumu, and the Ugandan ports of Port Bell and Jinja.

The new ship was built by TASHICO (Tanzania Shipping Co. LTD), in cooperation with Korean contractors Gas Entec Ship-Building Engineering, and Kang Nam Corporation, in collaboration with Suma JKT.

Tanzania’s strategy is to develop an integrated transport and logistics network that will combine waterway modes with the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) that currently begins at the Port of Mombasa and will soon be completed with a rail head on Lake Victoria. Kenya’s SGR will also terminate at Lake Victoria, and Uganda has recently launched its own SGR.

Lake Victoria is the second-largest freshwater lake in the world after Lake Superior in the United States. It is the source of the White Nile and forms part of the great Nile River Basin. In 2019 the Egyptian government launched the VICMED project (Lake Victoria–Mediterranean Sea Navigation Line), which sought to create a navigation corridor, and which has received the backing of the African Union and the African Development Bank.

Nigeria Completes Welding Work on Its Stretch of ‘Trans-Sahara Pipeline’

At the end of December, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) announced the milestone achievement of having completed the welding work on the main line of the AKK gas pipeline (Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano), which is a 614-km section of the Trans-Sahara Pipeline. Work is now proceeding on tie-ins, down-stream infrastructure, and other aspects of mechanical completion.

“This is not just about energy,” said Bashir Ojulari, CEO of NNPC. “It’s about industrialization, including fertilizer production, power generation, and gas-based industries in Kaduna, Kano, Abuja, and Ajaokuta.”

The project was begun in Nigeria in 2020 under President Muhammadu Buhari. Construction challenges included crossing the Niger River, which was achieved last Summer. The project will bring much-needed energy to the relatively poorer northern sector of the country. Power plants will be constructed for urban areas, energy will be provided for fertilizer plants, and more.

Moreover, when the Nigerian pipeline segment—now100 km from the border with Niger—is fully finished, as part of the 4,128 km Trans-Sahara Pipeline, Nigerian natural gas will flow through Niger to the Mediterranean border in Algeria.

The AKK also runs parallel to Nigeria’s “central line” of their standard gauge rail line—major segments are already in service—forming the central spine of a national development corridor.

Progress Continues in Nigeria for the World’s Largest Fertilizer Plant

Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote has begun contracting international firms to assist in building the world’s largest fertilizer complex in Nigeria, with plants to be built in Ethiopia as well. The Dangote Group announced its plans in Autumn 2025 for expanding into fertilizer manufacturing, following on the company’s announcement to expand its 650,000 barrel/day oil refinery, currently the world’s seventh-largest, to the world’s largest by expanding its capacity to 1.4 million bpd.

The company’s long-term plan involves working with foreign firms to strengthen African regional food security, enhance agricultural productivity, and deepen Africa’s position as a global fertilizer supplier. For example, in December, Dangote Fertilizer announced new contracts with the Italy-headquartered Saipem, for technical know-how and licensing of urea production, for use in both Nigeria and Ethiopia.

“Through these strategic partnerships, Dangote Group will increase its urea production capacity in Nigeria from the current three million metric tons to nine million metric tons annually. The existing facility operates two trains with a combined capacity of three million metric tons. The expansion will introduce four additional trains, enabling the Group to meet the rising demand for high quality fertilizer across Africa and global markets,” the company writes

“In addition to the Nigerian expansion, the Group recently held the groundbreaking ceremony for a $2.5 billion fertilizer plant in Gode, Ethiopia. The facility is designed to produce 3 million metric tons of urea annually,” Dangote Fertilizer said in November.

The world-class firm Engineers India Limited is acting as project-management consultant for engineering, procurement, and construction for the four fertilizer plants being developed by Dangote Fertilizer in Lekki, Nigeria. The Danish company Topsoe, along with Saipem, will provide technology design and licensing for these four, plus two plants in Ethiopia. German firm Thyssenkrupp’s UFT division is also involved.

China Firm Contracts with BUA Cement for Northwest Nigeria Plant

Nigeria’s BUA Cement announced Jan. 21 that it would construct in Sokoto State, in Nigeria’s far northwest, a $240 million cement plant with an annual output of three million tons. Sokoto, which borders Niger to the north, was the target of the U.S. “Christmas gift” missile strike on Dec. 25, 2025, launched in the name of fighting terrorism.

The new plant is to be built by China’s CBMI, a company which has built numerous cement plants around the world, including several for BUA in Nigeria. Power for the plant is expected to come from the newly completed, but not yet operational, LNG plant in Kogi State.

In its announcement, BUA takes note of Sokoto’s strategic location, “providing easy access to several landlocked neighboring countries.” Significantly, this description fits Niger, a member of the new Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

Uganda Soon To Be Petroleum Hub for East Africa; London Files Suit

Once completed, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), running 1,443 km from the Lake Albert oil fields in Uganda to the port of Tanga, Tanzania, on the Indian Ocean, will make Uganda a hub of petroleum for all East Africa. Underway since 2017, EACOP is now nearly 80% complete.

Blacklisted by the European Union and Western financial institutions right from the start, on bogus grounds of concern over CO₂ emissions and bio-diversity, the pipeline has been financed by the Ugandan subsidiary of South Africa’s Standard Bank, Stanbic Bank Uganda, with Sinosure advising on the project. Sinosure (China Export & Credit Insurance Corp.) is China’s state-backed insurer supporting overseas investments. In March 2025, the African Export-Import Bank and KCB Bank Uganda Ltd. joined in on the financing.

The latest attempt to stop the project comes this month from London. The Avaaz Foundation, a self-described “global action” group, in mid-January issued a release soliciting funds to file suit in London courts to stop “this monster pipeline.” They have hired the environmentalist and human rights firm of Leigh Day Solicitors. They claim that EACOP has a registration in London. The effort might reach a court settlement, but it is very unlikely to stop the project.

The EACOP is an important part of the pan-African effort to make Africa energy independent. When complete, EACOP will be the world’s longest heated pipeline, a condition the waxy oil requires to flow. The developers and their respective shares of ownership are: Total Energies of France (62%), Uganda’s National Oil Company, UNOC (15%), Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (15%), and China National Offshore Oil Corporation, CNOOC (8%).