MeTL Group finalizes Italian pact for industrial silo infrastructure at Tanzanian grain plant
The equipment is destined for a cereal storage facility in Bandari, Tanzania, and SACE, the export credit agency owned by Italy‘s finance ministry, insured the transaction through a tool it calls Supplier Credit.
TANZANIA – A specialized industrial division of MeTL Group, the diversified African conglomerate chaired by billionaire businessman Mohammed Dewji, has officially signed a procurement and construction contract worth over €2 million (US$2.3 million) with Italian manufacturing firm AGI EMEA.
The commercial agreement dictates the engineering, delivery, and installment of modern industrial silos and advanced grain-handling machinery.
The strategic infrastructure assets are bound for a primary cereals storage and milling facility operated by MeTL Group at Bandari, a vital commercial and logistics hub within the country.
The transaction is structured under a specialized trade finance framework fully backed and underwritten by SACE, the state-owned export credit agency operating directly under Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance.
SACE facilitated the cross-border purchase of equipment through its dedicated Supplier Credit mechanism.
This structural financial tool provides the Italian industrial exporter with robust payment guarantees, allowing AGI EMEA to extend deferred, flexible payment terms to the Tanzanian buyer while insulating the supply chain from potential political risks or international transaction defaults.
According to formal briefings from SACE leadership, the contract represents a direct success stemming from its ongoing “Push Strategy” development initiative in East Africa, which actively seeks to introduce major international buyers to high-tier Italian engineering supply networks.
The capital investment will be managed on-site by 21st Century Food & Packaging, a prominent subsidiary of MeTL Group and one of the largest commercial grain-milling operations in the region.
By deploying the new hermetic steel storage silos, the processing plant aims to drastically mitigate post-harvest product degradation caused by humidity and storage pests.
Increasing total grain hold capacity at the Bandari site allows the milling operator to smooth out volatile commodity supply curves between local agricultural harvests and international grain imports, protecting the enterprise from global price shocks.
The expansion matches the broader macroeconomic growth blueprint deployed by Mohammed Dewji, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at approximately US$1.9 billion.
MeTL Group relies heavily on localized, large-scale domestic manufacturing to serve price-sensitive mass markets across Sub-Saharan Africa.
While 21st Century Food & Packaging moves its core staple flours into local retail channels, it routinely exports secondary milling byproducts, such as wheat and maize bran, to deep-market buyers across the Middle East for use in animal feed.
Corporate executives anticipate that the modern Italian-built storage infrastructure will break ground immediately, accelerating the factory’s structural transition toward higher daily processing volumes.
Sign up to HERE receive our email newsletters with the latest news and insights from Africa and around the world, and follow us on our WhatsApp channel for updates.
