The President of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has disclosed that the Group has purchased a 25 per cent interest in a petroleum products pipeline network in Kenya as part of efforts to strengthen its distribution infrastructure across Africa.
Dangote disclosed this during a conversation with the Africa Editor of the Financial Times, David Pilling, at the Financial Times Africa Summit 2026 in London, United Kingdom.
“Just let me tell you, yesterday, with the support from the President of Kenya, we bought 25 per cent of the pipeline network for the distribution of petroleum products,” he said.
He said the Group was also pursuing petroleum distribution infrastructure projects in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Cameroon and Namibia as part of efforts to improve the movement of refined petroleum products across the continent.
“We are very aggressive with that,” Dangote said in response to a question about the Group’s plans to develop depots, pipelines and other petroleum distribution infrastructure.
He explained that the Group was developing a distribution corridor linking Djibouti with Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, including tank farms to support the storage and movement of petroleum products.
Dangote added that another project in Cameroon was approaching finalisation, while Namibia had been identified as a strategic location for expansion into Southern Africa.
He said the country’s proximity to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos would make it possible to establish an efficient supply route into the southern part of the continent: “From our refinery to Namibia is just about four days of steaming.”
According to him, the plan is to transport refined petroleum products from Lagos to Namibia and subsequently distribute them through interconnected markets, including Botswana and South Africa.
He also outlined a proposed distribution corridor extending through Zimbabwe and Zambia, explaining that the objective was to develop a network capable of serving several countries through strategically located storage and transportation infrastructure.
The expansion comes alongside plans by the Group to establish another refinery in Lamu, Kenya, with a proposed capacity of approximately 700,000 barrels per day.
Dangote said the decision to invest in East Africa was informed by the region’s substantial industrial and mining activities, growing energy requirements and persistent difficulties in accessing diesel and other petroleum products.
He explained that the proposed Kenyan refinery would source crude oil from different markets rather than depend exclusively on production from Uganda or Kenya.
According to him, the selection of Lamu followed technical assessments of several potential locations, with access to deep water, marine facilities and sufficient water resources emerging as critical considerations.
The industrialist said the investment decision was reached within four months, although he alleged that vested commercial interests had attempted to frustrate the project through legal proceedings shortly before its public unveiling.
Beyond energy infrastructure, Dangote called on African governments to protect domestic industries against unfair foreign competition, arguing that dependence on imported products was undermining local manufacturing and employment.
He questioned why African countries should expose emerging industries to unrestricted foreign competition when major economies were increasingly adopting measures to protect their manufacturing sectors.
Dangote warned that allowing imported products to displace domestic manufacturing amounted to “exporting our jobs out of the continent, importing poverty into the continent.”
He also disclosed that the Group had budgeted approximately $50bn for investments between 2026 and 2030, saying the programme was intended to expand its operations and encourage other African entrepreneurs and investors to participate in the continent’s industrial transformation.
“The legacy we are trying to set up is how do we industrialise our continent?” he said.
Dangote identified unreliable electricity supply as one of the major obstacles to industrialisation, particularly in mining and mineral processing, where inadequate power supply often prevented countries from adding value to their natural resources before export.
He said approximately 650 million Africans lacked access to electricity, stressing that addressing the continent’s power challenges would create opportunities for manufacturing, employment and economic diversification.
Questioning why a continent endowed with vast agricultural land, mineral resources and a youthful population should continue to experience widespread poverty, Dangote said Africa had the foundations required to become a major industrial force.
