Aliko Dangote has pledged $2 billion to build a 250MW solar power plant and a fuel storage terminal in The Gambia, a country where available generating capacity had fallen below 40MW by early 2025 and which imported 57% of its electricity in the first quarter of that year.
The commitment was announced on 7 July at State House in Banjul, where Dangote met President Adama Barrow on the margins of the African Caucus 2026 meetings — an annual gathering that brings African finance ministers together with the World Bank, and which The Gambia is hosting this year as its own investment showcase.
Dangote was accompanied by Olusegun Alebiosu, chief executive of First Bank Group, the Nigerian lender backing the initiative.
The pairing places Nigerian industrial capital and a Nigerian financial institution behind a West African grid project, keeping the financing chain entirely within the continent.
Scale against a constrained baseline
The proposed 250MW solar plant would dwarf The Gambia’s existing energy infrastructure. The country’s state utility, the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC), operates between 90MW and 99MW of installed capacity, though ageing equipment has pushed available output well below that figure.
The Gambia draws the bulk of its electricity imports from Senegal and Guinea. Its largest solar project currently under construction — the 150MW Soma scheme — is not due for completion until 2030.
The fuel storage component carries its own regional logic. A tank farm holding strategic petroleum reserves would alter how a small, import-dependent country responds to supply disruptions. It also arrives as the Dangote refinery in Nigeria continues to reshape fuel movements across West Africa. Whether that proximity translates into lower pump prices in Banjul will depend on commercial terms rather than geography alone.
Still preliminary
The commitment remains at an early stage. No binding agreements have been signed, no feasibility or technical studies have been completed, and no construction timeline has been set. The $2 billion figure has not been broken down between the two projects. Barrow has directed the relevant ministries to begin working with Dangote’s technical teams, and both sides must still establish joint implementation structures before any ground is broken.
Barrow described the pledge as a vote of confidence in The Gambia’s stability and reform agenda. The next concrete markers — a signed agreement, a completed feasibility study, a construction start — remain ahead.
