Dangote Industries Limited has signed a strategic agreement with General Electric (GE) to collaborate on power, transportation and oil and gas projects in order to address infrastructural gaps in Nigeria.

The strategic cooperation agreement was signed in Lagos last week during a meeting with Dangote Group President and Chief Executive Aliko Dangote and GE Global Chairman Jeffrey Immelt.

The two firms are to jointly invest in the upgrading of modern railway infrastructure for Nigeria, as well as working together on projects in the oil and gas sector.

It also covers projects for the design, production and sales of GE aeroderivative gas turbine power generation packages in Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries, as well as cooperation in the independent power production sector in Nigeria.

Africa’s richest man, Dangote and Immelt both expressed pleasure at the collaboration between the two conglomerates for the purpose of infrastructural development in Nigeria and the rest of Africa, and declared hope that they would provide world-class infrastructure in areas that badly needed it.

They pointed out that with Dangote Group one of the largest diversified conglomerates in Africa in the area of cement, foodstuffs manufacturing, logistics and real estate and GE a global leader in the design, manufacture, supply and installation of technologies and services, the partnership would be capable of addressing not only Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit but also that of the rest of Africa.

GE recently also entered into a framework agreement with Transnational Corporation of Nigeria, for the collaboration between the two parties in the development of Nigeria’s power and transport sectors, with particular focus on developing Transcorp owner Ughelli power plant.

Both deals come under the remit of GE’s agreement with the federal government concluded in March of last year, which sees GE pledge to assist in the ramp-up of Nigeria’s power supply over the next decade.