Dangote Joins Forces with Abuja Chamber to Prop Up Pan-African Trade at 2025 Trade Fair

Dangote Industries Limited has entered into a strategic partnership with the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) to strengthen intra-African trade and promote investment via the upcoming Abuja International Trade Fair. The collaboration is expected to spotlight Dangote’s diverse product lines, enhance regional commerce links, and provide a platform for Nigerian manufacturers and exporters to reach new African markets.

The company recently announced that it will be a major sponsor of the 2025 Abuja International Trade Fair, which opens on September 25 in the nation’s capital. Through this partnership, Dangote aims to leverage the trade-fair platform to showcase not only its core products—such as cement, sugar, salt, fertilizer, packaging materials, seasoning, petroleum products, and automobiles—but also innovations from its strategic business units. The fair’s theme, “Sustainability: Consumption, Incentives, and Taxation,” aligns with Dangote’s commitment to sustainable production and consumption, industrial expansion, and local content development.

In remarks made through its branding and corporate communications arm, Dangote emphasised that the partnership with ACCI represents more than sponsorship. It is a deliberate move to contribute to economic growth, encourage business networking, and promote investment both within Nigeria and across the African continent. Dangote’s management noted that Abuja, being the federal capital, provides a unique convergence of policymakers, diplomatic missions, investors, and industry stakeholders—making it ideal for such a collaboration.

ACCI’s President, Chief Emeka Obegolu, SAN, expressed optimism that Dangote’s involvement will raise the profile of local businesses at the trade fair and drive greater participation from both local and international exhibitors. He said ACCI expects attendance to run into tens of thousands, with representation from small and medium enterprises (SMEs), regional traders, import-export companies, development partners, and foreign delegations. Exhibits will cover a wide range of sectors including trade, agriculture, fintech, transportation, energy, creative industries, and environmental technologies.

A key initiative under this collaboration is the Chamber’s planned launch of the “Buy Africa, Build Africa” (BABA) strategy. Dangote’s representatives have welcomed BABA, viewing it as an opportunity to deepen local value-addition and reduce dependency on imported goods. The fair is expected to become a showcase for locally manufactured and processed goods, coupled with dialogues on tax incentives, trade facilitation, and sustainability in industry.

Stakeholders say the timing is opportune. With Nigeria seeking to expand its non-oil export base, stabilize its foreign exchange situation, and attract foreign direct investment, the trade fair provides a visible testbed for how public and private sectors can collaborate. The role of large industrial groups like Dangote is especially important, given their capacity to provide scale, supply chain reach, and logistical infrastructure that can help small businesses plug into regional trade flows.

Trade experts note that for such partnerships to yield lasting benefits, issues of infrastructure, ease of doing business, regulatory clarity, and access to trade finance must be addressed in tandem. It is expected that during the trade fair, panel discussions will address barriers like bottlenecks in customs clearing, challenges in cross-border logistics, tariff harmonisation, and digital trade solutions. Observers believe that Dangote’s involvement might inspire other major employers and industrial conglomerates to participate more actively in forums promoting intra-African trade.

For Dangote, this partnership also serves its broader business strategy. The firm has been expanding its footprint in Africa, not just through exports of refined products but also through investments that boost local content, backward integration, and industrial self-reliance. Executives have noted that showcasing trucks, packaging materials, automobiles, and fertilizer among other goods at the trade fair will help highlight Nigeria’s capacity to produce goods that meet regional demand.

Attendees of the Abuja International Trade Fair will have access to Dangote’s showcase pavilion, where company managers will field enquiries, demonstrate product lines, and engage with potential partners across the continent. SMEs are particularly expected to benefit from exposure, with the possibility of forging distribution agreements, export‐market linkages, and value chain partnerships.

With over a dozen of Dangote’s business units participating, the partnership underscores how industrial conglomerates can leverage trade fairs not just for marketing, but for shaping trade policy and regional economic integration. For ACCI, the collaboration validates its mandate to promote trade and industry and to build platforms where businesses can engage government, investors, and each other.

As Nigeria moves toward deepening its role in West African trade and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), partnership efforts like that between Dangote and ACCI are seen as essential to creating the momentum needed for trade growth, export diversification, and a more resilient economy.