Terra Industries began manufacturing drones in Abuja, Nigeria. Two years later, the Nigerian defence-tech company is building its largest production facility across the border in Accra, where Ghana is positioning itself as a base for defence manufacturing and exports.
Founded in 2024 by Nathan Nwachukwu and Maxwell Maduka, Terra has now raised $52 million in seed funding after securing another $18 million from investors.
The new capital will support manufacturing, engineering and expansion into new markets.
But the larger industrial story is where some of that expansion is taking place.
Terra’s 34,000-square-foot Pax-2 facility in Ghana is scheduled to begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2026. The company says the plant could produce as many as 50,000 aerial systems annually by 2028.
Its first factory, Pax-1 in Abuja, covers about 15,000 square feet.
Terra is not leaving Nigeria. Abuja remains an important part of its manufacturing network, and the company has developed relationships with Nigeria’s defence establishment.
Still, its decision to build a facility in Ghana that is more than twice the size of its Abuja plant is significant at a time when Nigeria is trying to develop its own defence-manufacturing industry.
Why Ghana won the factory
Terra has been direct about why it chose Ghana.
Nwachukwu said the company was attracted by the country’s engineering talent, location and government support for developing Ghana into a defence exporter.
“We chose Ghana for Pax-2 because of its talent, strategic position, and political will to become a serious defence exporter,” he said when the facility was announced.
Political will is particularly important in defence manufacturing.
This is not an industry in which a company acquires land, installs machinery and begins exporting.
Governments control procurement, security clearances, export approvals and licensing. They are also often the largest customers.
For a company seeking to supply drones and autonomous security systems across West Africa, a government willing to help build an export-oriented defence industry can become an important competitive advantage.
Terra plans to employ about 120 engineers at the Ghana facility. The plant will manufacture systems including its Archer vertical take-off and landing aircraft, Iroko unmanned aerial vehicle and Kama interceptor drone.
The company is also establishing a London office to handle part of its international commercial expansion.
Its emerging structure is instructive: manufacture and engineer much of the technology in Africa, while building access to customers and capital internationally.
Nigeria wants this industry too
Ghana’s success in securing Terra’s larger factory comes as Nigeria talks more openly about developing domestic defence manufacturing.
The federal government wants to reduce the country’s reliance on imported military equipment and build more of the technology used by its armed forces locally.
In June, Defence Minister Christopher Musa called on Nigerian technology companies, researchers and startups to develop indigenous security systems, naming areas such as unmanned vehicles, artificial intelligence, robotics and surveillance.
The House of Representatives has also called for a national drone industrialisation policy, arguing that Nigeria’s emerging drone industry needs better access to financing and government support.
Terra fits almost perfectly into that policy ambition.
When its Abuja facility was commissioned, the Ministry of Defence described the project as an important development for domestic defence and industrial capacity.
Yet Terra’s largest manufacturing expansion is taking place in Ghana.
The implication is not that government support in Nigeria is absent. It is that support has to compete with what other African governments are willing to offer.
Industrial policy is ultimately measured by investment decisions, not policy statements.
A growing African market
Terra’s expansion is also being driven by a security market that is changing quickly.
Military and security agencies across Africa increasingly require drones for surveillance, border monitoring, intelligence gathering and counter-insurgency operations.
The technology is also being used to protect mines, power infrastructure and other strategic assets.
At the same time, drones are no longer available only to conventional militaries. Armed groups across parts of the Sahel have begun adapting commercially available unmanned systems, forcing governments to invest in both drones and counter-drone technologies.
Terra has positioned itself inside that market.
The company says its technology is already being used to protect power plants, mines and other assets worth about $11 billion across several African countries.
Its products extend beyond aircraft.
Terra’s ArtemisOS software connects sensors and autonomous systems across air, land and fixed installations, allowing customers to detect threats and coordinate responses from a common platform.
That makes Terra less a drone manufacturer than a defence-technology company using drones as one component of a broader security system.
The company raised $11.8 million in January in a round led by 8VC, the venture firm founded by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. Another $22 million followed in February, led by Lux Capital, with participation from investors including Resilience17 Capital, founded by Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola.
Its latest $18 million round takes total seed funding to $52 million.
For an African defence startup, that is substantial capital. It gives Terra something many local manufacturers struggle to secure: enough financing to move from prototypes and limited production into industrial-scale manufacturing.
Defence can be an export industry
Nigeria has traditionally treated defence mainly as a security expenditure.
Terra illustrates why it can also be viewed as an industrial sector.
A functioning defence-manufacturing ecosystem supports engineers, software developers, electronics companies, component suppliers, researchers and specialised manufacturers.
Companies that achieve sufficient scale can also sell outside their home markets.
That matters for Nigeria, which continues to spend heavily importing military hardware.
Business Elites Africa previously reported that Nigeria imported about ₦776.9 billion worth of arms and ammunition between 2020 and the first half of 2025, based on National Bureau of Statistics trade data.
Domestic manufacturing will not eliminate those imports. Modern military procurement involves specialised equipment that few countries manufacture entirely at home.
But developing local capacity can keep more defence spending within the economy while creating technology, jobs and potential export revenue.
The competition is regional
It would be too simplistic to present Terra’s expansion as Ghana winning and Nigeria losing.
The company continues to manufacture in Abuja, and Nigeria remains by far the larger market. Its security requirements, defence spending and technology workforce give it advantages Ghana cannot easily replicate.
There are also sensible reasons for Terra to manufacture in more than one West African country.
Defence sales depend heavily on relationships with governments. Establishing production in multiple jurisdictions can bring the company closer to customers while reducing concentration risk.
But the Ghana decision still contains an important lesson for Nigeria.
When Nwachukwu explained the choice, he did not point primarily to cheaper labour or lower operating costs.
He cited talent, location and political will.
Nigeria already has a large talent pool. Its domestic market is considerably larger.
What it must demonstrate is that an entrepreneur who starts a sophisticated manufacturing company in Abuja will also find compelling reasons to put the second and third factories there.
