Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote has outlined plans for fuel pipelines, storage depots and distribution corridors across East, Central and Southern Africa, with Namibia, Djibouti and Cameroon among the proposed hubs under his group’s wider $50bn investment programme through 2030.
Speaking at the Financial Times Africa Summit in London on October 21, Dangote said the group was expanding infrastructure to distribute refined petroleum products from Nigeria to regional markets.
“We are very aggressive with that,” Dangote said during an interview with Financial Times Africa editor David Pilling.
Dangote, Africa’s richest man, also cited the group’s purchase of a 24.76% stake in Kenya Pipeline Company (NSE:KPC), the operator of Kenya’s main refined-products pipeline network, which was disclosed at the same event.
See IntelliNews: Nigeria’s Dangote confirms $327mn purchase of 24.76% stake in Kenya Pipeline Company
Djibouti corridor to serve Ethiopia
In East Africa, Dangote outlined a distribution corridor linking Djibouti with Addis Ababa through pipelines and storage facilities. The group and Ethiopian Investment Holdings announced a $660mn project in September involving a 120-kilometre pipeline from Damerjog in Djibouti to Dewele in Ethiopia, supported by storage terminals at both ends, according to Bloomberg. Operations are expected to begin within 18 months.
Dangote and Ethiopian Investment Holdings are also developing a separate $160mn petroleum terminal at Damerjog, planned to have 375,000 cubic metres of storage and transit capacity of up to 5mn tonnes of petroleum products a year. Djibouti handles more than 90% of landlocked Ethiopia’s maritime trade, and fuel deliveries along the corridor still depend largely on road tankers, with about 350 trucks a day moving fuel towards Ethiopia earlier this year.
See IntelliNews: Dangote, Ethiopian Investment Holdings launch $660mn Djibouti fuel pipeline project
See IntelliNews: Djibouti expands fuel corridor with rail-linked terminal for direct shipments to Ethiopia
Namibia as Southern Africa gateway
Namibia would serve as a gateway to Southern Africa, with refined products shipped from Dangote’s Lagos refinery for onward distribution to Botswana, South Africa and other markets.
“From our refinery to Namibia is just about four days of steaming,” Dangote said.
The group previously outlined a proposed fuel pipeline network extending approximately 2,650 kilometres across Southern Africa, at an estimated cost of more than $3.5bn. The routes would run from Namibia through Botswana towards South Africa, with another corridor extending through Zimbabwe and Zambia towards the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Right now, the budget is over $3.5 billion, but it’s not the only pipeline we are doing,” Dangote told Bloomberg television in September, adding that the wider African network could eventually total almost 4,000 kilometres. Dangote shipped 158,000 tonnes of fuel to Southern Africa in 2025 and a record 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) to South Africa in March 2026, according to S&P Global.
See IntelliNews: Dangote plans $3.5bn-plus Namibia-Botswana-South Africa fuel pipeline
Dangote Industries Namibia has begun seeking environmental approval for a proposed petroleum storage terminal at Walvis Bay with a planned capacity of 1.6mn barrels. The current application concerns the subdivision of about 68 hectares of industrial land and does not authorise construction, according to Market Watch. Namibia’s National Planning Commission has put the terminal’s cost at about $140mn.
Dangote also said a separate distribution infrastructure project in Cameroon was approaching finalisation, without specifying its investment value, capacity or commissioning timetable.
Refinery expansion lifts export capacity
The proposed infrastructure would extend the reach of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery near Lagos, allowing the group to supply more landlocked African markets through coastal storage facilities and inland distribution networks.
The refinery, Africa’s largest, was built with a nameplate capacity of 650,000 bpd and completed performance tests at 700,000 bpd in June. Dangote is pursuing a $14.3bn expansion that would raise capacity to about 1.4mn bpd by 2029, increasing the volumes available for export. Nigeria’s seaborne petroleum-product shipments, including coastal movements and exports, averaged 561,000 bpd in the second quarter of 2026, against 79,000 bpd in 2023.
The refinery has also warned that continued petrol import licences in Nigeria could push more surplus fuel into regional and international markets.
See IntelliNews: Nigeria’s Dangote says petrol imports may push more fuel to export markets
Much of the network still at planning stage
The approximately $50bn investment envisaged between 2026 and 2030 covers the group’s industrial businesses, including mining, manufacturing, ports and energy, rather than fuel distribution alone.
While the Djibouti-Ethiopia project was formally launched in September, much of the Southern African infrastructure remains at the planning or permitting stage. No consolidated financing package or construction timetable has been disclosed for the wider network.