Arridex, a Nigerian industrial group formerly known as RusselSmith, has commissioned West Africa’s first multi-technology additive manufacturing facility in Lagos, Nigeria. The “Omnifactory” was inaugurated on 10 June 2026, with Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu cutting the ribbon at an event. The plant is designed to print spare parts and components for clients across oil and gas, maritime, aerospace, defence, and construction sectors that have long relied on imports to keep operations running.
The commissioning also marks the conclusion of a corporate rebranding. The name change took effect on 19 May 2026, when RusselSmith formally became Arridex. Governor Sanwo-Olu told attendees that the facility would help “reduce our dependence on imports” while reinforcing Lagos’s standing as an industrial hub. Group Chief Executive Officer Kayode Adeleke, however, framed the launch in sharper terms; The Omnifactory, he said, demonstrates that “We exist to prove what is true, that Africa not only consumes from the world, but also supplies the world.”
THE PLANT
Additive manufacturing, the formal term for 3D printing, produces parts layer by layer from digital blueprints, which is the exact opposite of traditional manufacturing (using molds). The Omnifactory brings 4 additive processes under one roof: laser powder bed fusion, which fuses metal powder using a laser; cold spray, which deposits metal particles at high velocity for repair and remanufacturing; fused filament fabrication, a widely used plastics-extrusion method; and selective laser sintering, which sinters polymer powders into finished parts.
The plant’s large-format equipment can produce full-size marine components, an advantage for a country with a vast but aging inland and coastal fleet. For the defence and energy sectors, the case is equally direct. When a component for an old ship, aircraft, or offshore rig fails, and the original manufacturer cannot be reached, a digital blueprint and an operational printer can yield a replacement in days rather than the months typically required for overseas procurement.
Arridex traces its roots to 2005, when it began as an asset integrity company serving Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Over two decades, it broadened into maritime, defence, construction, and aerospace, and the company says it has logged more than 7 million person-hours without a lost-time incident. It holds Pioneer Status in additive manufacturing from the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC). It is the first firm qualified by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to deploy additive manufacturing in the oil and gas sector.
THE DEFENCE ANGLE
The Omnifactory’s most consequential strategic relationship is its joint venture with the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON). Arridex, then still known as RusselSmith, signed a MoU with DICON in October 2025 to incorporate additive manufacturing within DICON’s production lines. DICON’s director-general, Major General Babatunde Alaya, described the partnership as “a monumental step” toward what Nigerian officials refer to as the Military Industrial Complex, the national push to build a domestic defence manufacturing base under the DICON Act 2023.
For DICON, additive manufacturing offers a route to produce tooling, fixtures, and parts for military-grade equipment without being constrained by import licences or foreign suppliers who may restrict sales to Nigeria. RusselSmith previously demonstrated a deployable military-grade additive manufacturing system at the NISEC Expo in Abuja in October 2024, signalling early capability that is now being scaled at the Omnifactory. The Omnifactory does not position Nigeria among the world’s leading military manufacturing powers. Its declared focus remains on parts, spares, and component-level production rather than on complete weapon systems. It also gives DICON a comparatively lower-risk pathway to build additive manufacturing know-how before moving toward more complex and sensitive programmes.
Nigerian officials have repeatedly connected the Omnifactory to the DICON Act 2023 and the wider Military Industrial Complex agenda, language that signals defence self-sufficiency as policy direction rather than mere aspiration. Brig. Gen. A.A. Lawal, representing the Nigerian Army’s Defence Intelligence at the commissioning, stated that additive manufacturing reflects the trajectory toward which many production processes are heading. Institutional buy-in of this kind, combined with DICON’s statutory authority to pursue private partnerships, suggests that the Omnifactory is intended to function as one node within a broader ecosystem, rather than as an isolated showcase.
Kayode Adeleke has already pointed to what follows. He told the commissioning audience that Arridex intends to open a larger Mega Omnifactory by the first quarter of 2027, one that the company says would rank among the largest single-site additive manufacturing facilities anywhere.