Russell Smith Officially Joins Arridex

Ayodeji Ake

Arridex, which was previously known as RusselSmith, has officially changed its name after registering the new title with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria. The rebranding signals the company’s expanded capabilities and the wide range of industries it now serves, far beyond the oil and gas services that marked its beginnings in the early 2000s.

Initially established as an asset integrity provider for Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, the firm has evolved into a multi‑sector industrial technology group. It now operates in oil and gas, maritime, aerospace, defence, construction, and manufacturing. Its subsidiaries cover engineering and construction delivery, autonomous systems development, advanced technology products, industrial additive manufacturing, and asset integrity operations.

Arridex holds Pioneer Status in additive manufacturing, awarded by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), and is the first company approved by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to deploy additive manufacturing in the oil and gas sector.

These recognitions formally acknowledge Arridex’s capabilities and its role in building indigenous industrial capacity at scale. With more than 20 years of continuous delivery, the company is certified to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018, underpinning an integrated management system that governs its operations across all sectors. It has recorded zero lost‑time incidents over more than seven million man‑hours of work.

The name change coincides with a major operational milestone: the inauguration of the Arridex Omnifactory, West Africa’s first multi‑technology industrial additive manufacturing facility, scheduled for Lagos in June 2026. The Omnifactory brings together several additive manufacturing technologies—Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L‑PBF), Cold Spray, Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)—under one roof, enabling on‑demand production of industrial components, spares, and improved part designs for critical industries. Its large‑format capabilities also allow the manufacture of full‑size marine components.

The facility’s opening marks a clear milestone in Arridex’s journey from its origins.

For decades, Africa’s critical industries have relied on components and specialist expertise imported from outside the continent, creating supply chains that span multiple jurisdictions and lead times that can disrupt asset owners when dealing with legacy parts.

The Omnifactory will produce industrial components and parts on demand in Lagos, helping to build operational resilience in these essential sectors.

Group Chief Executive Officer Kayode Adeleke said: “The name RusselSmith defined what we were at the start. Arridex defines what we have built. The dependency of African industry on fragile supply chains is a structural problem that this continent has accepted for too long. The Omnifactory is a concrete answer to the challenge of manufacturing sovereignty. Arridex is the name of the company built over two decades and raised intentionally to enable industrial resilience in Africa.”

Arridex is a Designated Strategic Partner of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC) and serves clients across Nigeria and the wider African region. The company maintains a joint‑venture partnership with the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) for military‑grade additive manufacturing, is a member of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), and is also a member of the Defence Industries Association of Nigeria (DIAN). With the Omnifactory inauguration in June 2026, Arridex enters its next phase of operations under a name that reflects the full scope of what it has built.