Can Nigeria’s drone industry give Africa self-defense rights | Story

Across Africa, the ability to secure borders, manage territories and protect critical infrastructure remains heavily dependent on foreign suppliers. Turkish drones patrol the border, Chinese surveillance systems monitor cities and Russian warplanes form the backbone of several military units.

Over the years, African militaries have turned to other countries for dangerous defense technologies, leaving the continent a consumer rather than a producer.

Startups in Abuja are trying to change that equation.

Terra Industries, founded in 2024 by Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka, who are in their early twenties, designs and manufactures drones, autonomous platforms and unmanned vehicles from Abuja and Accra.

Unlike companies that assemble imported components, Terra says it manufactures its own software, airframes, propellers and lithium-ion battery packs, with more than 70 percent of its inputs sourced locally.

The company says its systems are currently being used to protect infrastructure worth about $11bn, including electricity, lithium and gold mines, oil refineries and other valuable assets in eight African countries and Canada.

Creativity

The shift from importing defense technology to local production has been a key debate across Africa. Governments facing armed forces, porous borders, lack of maritime security and attacks on critical infrastructure are looking for quick and flexible solutions.

Terra’s move from private security to negotiations with Nigeria’s security agencies reflects this shift. The company says its systems are designed to solve problems ranging from maritime surveillance and border control to energy security and mining.

“Coastal regions in West Africa are focusing on maritime surveillance because of piracy and illegal fishing in the Gulf of Guinea,” director general Nathan Nwachuku told Al Jazeera. “Governments fighting insurgency and the central border require continuous aerial surveillance and rapid response. Others are looking at the security of pipelines, power and electricity, as well as mining assets, problems that we started with in Nigeria.”

The company is now planning a regional expansion. Nwachuku confirmed that Terra’s second manufacturing facility in Ghana will be the largest drone manufacturing facility in Africa, and by 2028 will produce 50,000 units per year.

“Our long-term goal is to go global because the threats are designed to be addressed in the Global South,” he said. “Governments in South Asia and South America are also facing these problems, and they also depend on people selling goods from other countries. We want to serve them as we grow.”

Investor confidence

The growth in revenue from Terra reflects the growing interest in the security technology sector in Africa. The company has raised $34m in seed funding, which it says is one of Africa’s largest startup capitals.

The investment was led by 8VC, a venture capital firm founded by Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale, along with Lux Capital and Valor Equity Partners, investors in companies such as Anduril and SpaceX.

“The circuit was closed in less than two weeks, which is rare even in the world,” Tage Kene-Okafor, director of communications for Terra Industries, told Al Jazeera. “But what’s been really exciting is our table, where we have the likes of 8VC, Lux Capital and Valor Equity Partners, investors who have backed companies that are creating the future of security and global manufacturing.”

Safety required

The interest in companies like Terra comes as drones are increasingly used in conflicts across Africa. In the Sahel, low-cost commercial drones have moved from surveillance equipment to weapons used in combat, creating new challenges for the military which often lacks the ability to combat drones.

According to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an alliance linked to al-Qaeda operating in Mali and Burkina Faso, has carried out more than 100 attacks since 2023, with 2025 recording the highest number to date.

Terra says its Kama interceptor drone was designed with this threat in mind. The company says the system can reach speeds of up to 300kph and is designed to combat armed drones in areas where traditional air defense systems may be unavailable or too expensive.

Developing security technology, however, is not the same as acquiring the right to self-defense.

A question of authority

Although a country can develop manufacturing skills through investment, engineering skills and industrial policy, the security regime needs organizations that can manage procurement, ensure accountability and maintain good industries for the long term.

Janice Greaver, director of Pan African Sustainable, Innovation and Development Associates (PASIDA), says that local production alone cannot answer those questions.

“Getting seventy out of seven percent means little until we know who controls the intelligence, who works and who is left behind,” he told Al Jazeera. “And when private capital sets up the government without public oversight, we sell one dependency (on foreign investors) to another (on foreign capital).”

Terra Industries has demonstrated that advanced defense technologies can be designed and manufactured in Africa. Its rapid rise reflects the continent’s technological potential as well as the pressure posed by security concerns.

Whether that will be true security governance depends on what happens beyond the factory: how governments buy, regulate and monitor the technologies they want to build themselves.

As Greaver warns: “Its creative power is under construction, independence requires practices that do not exist”.