President and Chief Executive of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has unveiled an ambitious plan to establish an extensive petroleum distribution network across Africa, with investments in pipelines, storage facilities and strategic supply corridors.
He has also urged African governments to protect domestic industries against unfair foreign competition.
Dangote said the Group was aggressively expanding its petroleum distribution infrastructure across East, Central and Southern Africa to address longstanding supply challenges, reduce logistical bottlenecks and strengthen the continent’s energy security.
Speaking during a wide-ranging conversation with Financial Times journalist David Pilling, the industrialist disclosed that the Group had acquired a 25 per cent stake in a petroleum products pipeline network in Kenya and was pursuing additional infrastructure projects connecting Djibouti to Ethiopia, alongside investments in Cameroon and Namibia.
He argued that Africa’s economic transformation would remain elusive unless the continent combined investments in critical infrastructure with industrial policies that encouraged local manufacturing, protected productive capacity and retained employment opportunities within African economies.
Dangote warned that allowing imported products to displace domestic manufacturing amounted to “exporting our jobs out of the continent, importing poverty into the continent.”
According to him, the expansion of the Dangote Group’s petroleum distribution operations represents a strategic effort to develop an integrated African energy supply system, linking major refining centres with markets that have historically depended on imported petroleum products and fragmented distribution arrangements.
“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 disclosed that the Group had recently acquired a 25 per cent interest in a petroleum pipeline network in Kenya, describing the investment as part of a wider strategy to strengthen the movement of refined petroleum products across the continent.
“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.
The Group, he explained, was also developing a distribution corridor linking Djibouti with Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, including tank farms designed to support the storage and movement of petroleum products.
He added that another project in Cameroon was nearing completion, while Namibia had been identified as a major strategic location for the Group’s expansion into Southern Africa.
Dangote said Namibia would play a particularly important role because of its relatively short maritime distance from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos, making 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,” he said.
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 another proposed distribution corridor extending through Zimbabwe and Zambia, explaining that the objective was to develop an extensive network capable of serving multiple countries through strategically located storage and transportation infrastructure.
The expansion comes alongside the Group’s plans 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, thereby creating a broader supply base for its operations.
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.
He maintained that the experience reflected the intense competition and powerful interests operating in the international petroleum industry.
Beyond energy infrastructure, Dangote used the conversation to make a case for industrial protection, arguing that African economies must create an enabling environment for domestic manufacturers if they are to escape dependence on imported goods.
He questioned why African countries should expose their emerging industries to unrestricted foreign competition when major economies were increasingly adopting measures to defend their own manufacturing sectors.
Citing developments in the United States and the global automobile industry, Dangote argued that protecting strategic industries was not peculiar to developing economies but a widely recognised instrument of industrial policy.
“If America is now saying, no, we are going to protect our industries, who are we in Africa not to protect our own industries?” he asked.
Dangote also disclosed that the Group had budgeted approximately $50 billion for investments between 2026 and 2030, describing the programme as part of a broader ambition to demonstrate Africa’s capacity to execute large-scale industrial projects.
He said the investments were intended not only to expand the Group’s operations but also to 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.
He argued that Africa’s development would depend on building strong financial institutions, adopting effective agricultural and industrial policies, and addressing persistent infrastructure deficits that continued to constrain economic growth.
Dangote identified unreliable electricity supply as one of the most significant obstacles to industrialisation, particularly in mining and mineral processing, where the absence of dependable power often prevented countries from adding value to their natural resources before export.
He said approximately 650 million Africans lacked access to electricity, stressing that solving 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 insisted that Africa possessed the foundations required to become a major industrial force.
He expressed confidence that the continent’s economic transformation had already begun and that African governments and entrepreneurs were becoming increasingly conscious of the need to take responsibility for their industrial future.
“The journey has started,” he declared. “But now we’re awake, and we will make it happen.”
