Solewant Group Deepens African Expansion Drive as Roadmap Plus Moves from Strategy to Execution

 Segun Peters

What began as a 10-year strategic plan is steadily taking physical form across Solewant Group’s operations. At the beginning of 2025, Solewant Group set in motion its Roadmap Plus 2025–2035, a long-term growth and industrial development programme conceived around a straightforward proposition: that an African energy services company seeking to compete internationally must continue to invest deliberately in its people, plants, products and technical solutions.

The programme marked a new phase in the development of a business that began in Nigeria more than two decades ago and has progressively built capabilities in steel pipes, pipeline coating, fabrication, construction, corrosion protection, field-joint services, technical training and industrial manufacturing. The Group’s business around steel pipes, pipe coating, fabrication, construction and protection of metal and concrete assets serving the oil, gas, water, refinery, petrochemical and allied industries has continued to move in an upward trajectory.

Roadmap Plus was therefore not conceived simply as an expansion document. It was designed as an investment programme through which existing capabilities would be deepened, new industrial facilities developed and the Group’s Nigerian manufacturing base progressively connected to opportunities elsewhere in Africa. That strategy is now becoming visible.

From Roadmap Plus to New Industrial Capacity

One of the earliest major investments under the new phase was the expansion of the Group’s manufacturing capabilities at the Solewant Industrial Park, Alode-Eleme/Onne, Rivers State. In July 2025, Solewant commissioned a specialised pipe bend and fitting multi-layer coating facility, developed in partnership with its foreign OEM partners to address a longstanding technical challenge associated with applying protective multi-layer coating systems to bends, tees, flanges and other irregular pipeline components.

The facility expanded Solewant’s existing capability beyond conventional straight-line pipe coating and provided an in-country solution for components that are particularly vulnerable to corrosion where coating integrity is compromised. The facility was developed with Euro-American OEM partners and is already supporting pipe-bend coating requirements for Nigerian energy-sector projects.

That investment was followed in 2026 by another significant step: the commissioning of the Solewant Specialty Protective Coatings and Paints Limited manufacturing plant. The plant represents a deliberate move by Solewant from being predominantly an applicator and provider of industrial coating solutions into the domestic manufacture of protective coating materials and paints themselves.

The facility was formally commissioned on 31 July 2026 at the Group’s industrial complex in Rivers State, Nigeria. At the inauguration and flag off of the project, the Group’s Chief Executive Officer and its Managing Director, Mr. Solomon Ewanehi said the project is one of the flagship investments under Roadmap Plus and linked it directly with Solewant’s wider objective of strengthening domestic manufacturing, skills development, technology transfer and Nigeria’s industrial value chain.

That distinction is important. For an industry in which considerable quantities of specialised coatings, paints and associated industrial materials have historically been imported, local manufacturing is not merely another product line. It potentially retains manufacturing expenditure, technical knowledge, laboratory capability, employment and industrial experience within the domestic economy.

Eleven Formulated SSPC & Paints Products for a Wider Market

The next phase of Solewant Group’s product-development drive came on 17 August 2026, shortly before the Namibia Oil and Gas Conference in Windhoek, with the presentation of eleven formulated coating and paint products developed under Solewant Specialty Protective Coatings & Paints Limited.

The portfolio comprises Solguard Emulsion Paint, Solguard Matt Paint, Solguard Silk Paint, Solguard Alkyd Gloss Enamel, Solguard Red Oxide Metal Primer, Solguard Zinc-Rich Epoxy Primer, Solguard High-Build Epoxy Coat, Solguard Acrylic Polyurethane Coat, Novaguard 100% Solid Epoxy, Novaguard 100% Solid Polyurethane and Novaguard 100% Solid Polyurea.

The range has been formulated to serve both decorative and industrial applications. The Solguard decorative coatings provide qualities such as good hiding power, adhesion, weather resistance, washability and durable finishes for residential, commercial and institutional environments, while the industrial systems extend into corrosion protection, UV resistance, chemical resistance, abrasion resistance, waterproofing and long-term protection of steel and other critical assets.

At the higher-performance end of the portfolio, the Novaguard systems are solvent-free, fast-curing protective coatings designed for demanding applications requiring strong corrosion, abrasion, impact and chemical resistance, with the Novaguard 100% Solid Epoxy also formulated as a zero-VOC system that cures to form a durable, seamless protective barrier.

For Solewant Group, the significance of the portfolio goes beyond the introduction of eleven products. It strengthens the Group’s progression from coating application and asset protection into the formulation and manufacture of protective materials, while creating a broader product platform for Nigerian and regional African markets.

The development also brings more elements of the Group’s industrial value chain together — from steel pipes and fabrication to coating technology, protective-product formulation, application, testing, inspection and technical manpower development — further positioning Solewant as an integrated provider of industrial protection and engineering solutions.

Namibia Becomes the Next Strategic Step

The timing is significant since Namibia is moving rapidly from petroleum exploration into the more demanding questions of development, investment, local content, supply-chain readiness and preparation for eventual production. The 2026 Namibia Oil and Gas Conference brought government, operators, investors, financiers, contractors and service companies together in Windhoek against this background. Solewant Group’s participation to NOGC 2026 was led by the Groups CEO, Mr. Solomon Ewanehi, and accompanied by the Groups’ Executive Director and MD of SSPC, Mr. Matthew Aganren, Group Executive Director and MD of Pipes and Metals Industries Ltd, Engr. Segun Edun, Executive Secretary, Solewant Energy Training Institute, Dr. Ben Ubleble, Group General Manager, Business Development and Strategy, Dr. Felix Onyela, Solewant Group Namibia Country Manager, Ms. Selma Matheus amongst others.

For Solewant, Namibia therefore represents more than geographical expansion. It provides an opportunity to test a model that has taken more than two decades to develop in Nigeria: combining industrial plants, engineering capability, technical manpower, technology partnerships and in-country manufacturing within one operating ecosystem.

The message taken to Windhoek was consequently centred on productive African content. Solewant Group argued that Namibia’s petroleum opportunity should ultimately be measured not only by barrels produced or revenues received, but by the engineers, technicians, competitive indigenous contractors, manufacturing capability, technology and durable businesses that remain in the country.

As Solomon Ewanehi put it during the Namibia engagement, finding oil and benefiting from oil are not the same thing. The more consequential question is what the resource eventually produces for the country in jobs, businesses, technical capability and industrial infrastructure. The Group’s position was equally clear on timing: African-centred local-content development cannot wait until major contracts have already been awarded. The period before full production should be used to qualify technicians, strengthen suppliers, establish certification and quality systems, develop financing mechanisms and build partnerships through which knowledge and responsibility can genuinely be transferred.

SETI carried the same argument into the Contractors Masterclass where Dr. Ben Ubleble, ES SETI argued that training should be tailored for the project pipeline, not merely for certificates. Skills development, as he argued, should be connected to forecast work packages, recognised competency standards, supervised industrial exposure and eventual contractor competency enhancement in readiness for the boom that is about to set in to Namibian economy. 

From Conference Engagement to Bilateral Business

The wider Namibia programme also opened another important chapter: strengthening commercial relationships between Nigerian and Namibian businesses. Against the backdrop of the Namibia Oil and Gas Conference, Solewant Group’s engagements brought greater attention to the possibilities for Nigerian industrial expertise, technology, manufacturing and energy-sector experience to participate in Namibia’s emerging petroleum economy.

The broader direction is consistent with Namibia’s current investment agenda. The 2026 NOGC itself is organised by the Economic Association of Namibia, the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board and Hanns Seidel Foundation in strategic partnership with NAMCOR, reflecting the country’s effort to connect petroleum development with investment and wider economic participation.

The Namibia–Nigeria business engagement, involving investment-promotion and diplomatic stakeholders from both countries, therefore provided an appropriate climax to Solewant’s Windhoek programme: moving the conversation beyond conference participation towards practical trade, investment, industrial partnerships and business-to-business relationships.

For Solewant Group, that is precisely where Roadmap Plus is intended to lead. The company that spent its earlier years building Nigerian capacity in pipeline coating is progressively developing into a broader African industrial group—manufacturing steel pipes, coating and protecting infrastructure, fabricating industrial components, developing protective products, training technical manpower and establishing platforms through which those capabilities can participate in other African markets.

The Journey Returns to Port Harcourt

With the Namibia programme concluded, attention now turns back to Nigeria—but with the African conversation continuing. Solewant Group will host the 10th Africa Energy Summit from 26–27 November 2026 in Port Harcourt, under the theme: “Scaling Innovation, Financing and Industrial Capacity for Africa’s Energy Security.” The theme follows naturally from the events of the past two years.

Africa possesses enormous energy resources, but the continent’s long-term energy security will depend increasingly on whether those resources can support competitive domestic industries, viable indigenous contractors, bankable projects, technical skills and technologies capable of operating to international standards.

The 10th edition of the Summit is expected to bring together energy executives, policymakers, academics, regulators, financiers, investors, development institutions, members of the diplomatic community and business leaders from Africa, the Caribbean and other international markets. Discussions are expected to move beyond the traditional debate about Africa’s resource potential towards the more difficult question of execution: how innovation is financed, how African contractors acquire productive capability, how industrial facilities are sustained, how technology is transferred, and how the continent builds the manufacturing and human capacity necessary to secure its own energy future.

That conversation has become particularly relevant to Solewant Group. Twenty-six years after the company began building its indigenous capabilities in Nigeria, Roadmap Plus is taking the organisation into a different stage of its development. The Bend Coating Plant represents further investment in plants. The eleven SSPC products represent continuous investment in products and indigenous manufacturing. SETI represents investment in people and knowledge. The Group’s engineering, coating, fabrication, field-joint and asset-protection capabilities represent investment in technical solutions. And Ukemezi Africa Oil & Gas Limited represents the beginning of a more deliberate continental expansion strategy.

Taken together, they tell a more important story than the commissioning of individual factories or the launch of individual products. They represent the gradual construction of an African industrial enterprise that intends to compete not simply on the basis of being indigenous, but on the strength of its technology, people, manufacturing capacity, standards and ability to deliver.

That is the proposition Solewant Group carried from Nigeria to Windhoek. And when stakeholders gather again in Port Harcourt in November for the Solewant Group 10th Africa Energy Summit, it is also likely to frame the larger conversation: how Africa can convert its considerable energy resources into the industrial capacity, enterprises, skills and economic value that remain on the continent long after individual projects have been completed.

From new manufacturing plants and 11 formulated coating products in Nigeria to a new operating platform in Namibia, the indigenous energy group is taking the next phase of its industrial expansion beyond Nigeria.

•Peters, a global energy analyst, writes from Houston, Texas, United States