In Accra, Ghana, a 24-year-old Nigerian businessman is building what is expected to be Africa’s biggest drone manufacturing factory. The 34,000-square-foot Pax-2 plant is being built by Nathan Nwachuku, co-founder and CEO of defense technology startup Terra Industries. It is expected to be completely operational by the end of June 2026.
The building is Terra’s first production expansion outside of its home nation and more than doubles the size of the company’s original 15,000-square-foot factory in Abuja, Nigeria. By 2028, the plant is expected to produce 50,000 drones a year at full capacity, generating about 120 engineering positions. Three of Terra’s aerial systems will be manufactured at the facility: the Iroko UAV for quick tactical deployment, the Archer VTOL for long-range surveillance and strike missions, and the Kama, a recently revealed interceptor drone with a top speed of 300 km/h that is intended for counter-drone defense.
The growth coincides with the escalation of drone warfare throughout the Sahel region of Africa by armed organizations connected to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. The al-Qaeda coalition Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), which operates in Burkina Faso and Mali, is known to have carried out at least 89 drone missions between 2023 and 2025. The escalating threat was highlighted in January 2026 when militants associated with the Islamic State used suicide drones to attack Niamey International Airport in Niger.
Nathan Nwachuku, co-founder and CEO of Terra, said, “Africa can only have lasting peace by uniting to build sovereign defense, not by relying on foreign security architecture.” Ghana was chosen for the project, he continued, due to its geographic location, talent pool, and “political will to become a serious defense exporter.” Nwachuku added, “We need to control our own destiny,” emphasizing the necessity for Africa to develop its own defense mechanisms. The continent will destroy terrorism in this way.
Terra Industries, which was founded in 2024 by Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka, is the most funded defense-tech business on the continent after raising $34 million in two quick investment rounds in 2026. Investors include Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola’s Resilience17 Capital and US-based companies Lux Capital and 8VC. The organization already claims to have safeguarded around $11 billion in assets, including oil installations, hydropower projects, and lithium mines, throughout eight African nations.
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The Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), the state-run defense arm of the Nigerian Armed Forces, and Terra signed a memorandum of understanding in February to create a joint venture for local assembly and training, which led to the Ghana expansion. Pax-2 construction is nearing completion, and by the end of June 2026, the facility should be completely functioning.
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