Dangote unveils Pan-African energy distribution network

The President and Chief Executive of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has unveiled plans to establish an extensive petroleum distribution network across Africa through strategic investments in pipelines, storage facilities and supply corridors, while urging African governments to adopt policies that protect domestic industries and accelerate industrialisation.

Dangote said the Group is aggressively expanding its petroleum logistics and distribution infrastructure across East, Central and Southern Africa as part of efforts to strengthen energy security, improve access to refined products and eliminate longstanding supply bottlenecks across the continent.

Speaking during a wide-ranging interview with Financial Times journalist David Pilling, the industrialist disclosed that the Group recently acquired a 25 per cent stake in a petroleum products pipeline network in Kenya and is pursuing additional infrastructure projects connecting Djibouti and Ethiopia, alongside investments in Cameroon and Namibia.

According to him, Africa’s aspiration for economic transformation will remain difficult to achieve without significant investments in infrastructure combined with industrial policies that promote local manufacturing, preserve productive capacity and create sustainable employment opportunities.

“Allowing imports to displace local production means we are exporting our jobs out of the continent and importing poverty into the continent,” Dangote said.

Dangote explained that the expansion forms part of a broader strategy to develop an interconnected African energy supply system capable of linking major refining centres with underserved markets that have historically depended on imported petroleum products and fragmented distribution channels.

“We are very aggressive with that,” he said, in response to questions about the Group’s plans for petroleum depots, pipelines and logistics infrastructure.

He revealed that the acquisition of a 25 per cent stake in Kenya’s petroleum pipeline network was achieved with the support of the Kenyan government and would significantly enhance the movement of refined petroleum products within the East African region.

“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,” Dangote disclosed.