- Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, disclosed the acquisition of a 25% stake in Kenya Pipeline Co. at an event in London
- The KSh 42.3b (USD 327 million) deal gives Dangote's group direct access to Kenya's petroleum distribution network
- The pipeline stake adds to Dangote's growing presence in Kenya, which already includes a $16 billion refinery project in Lamu County
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Africa's wealthiest individual, Aliko Dangote, has acquired a 25% stake in Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) for KSh 42.3 billion (USD 327 million), according to Bloomberg News, extending his group's petroleum distribution reach into East Africa.
Source: UGC
Dangote, the founder and chief executive of Dangote Industries Ltd., announced the transaction himself at a London event on Wednesday.
Speaking at the gathering, he confirmed that his group had secured access to KPC's infrastructure for moving petroleum products across the region.
"We bought 25% of their pipeline network for the distribution of petroleum products," Dangote said, without naming the specific entity within his conglomerate that completed the purchase.
Kenya Pipeline Company and What the Deal Means
Kenya Pipeline Company is a state-owned enterprise operating a network of pipelines, storage terminals and associated facilities that transport petroleum products from the coast to domestic markets and landlocked neighbouring countries in East Africa.
The acquisition represents one of Dangote's most consequential downstream investments outside Nigeria and gives his group a direct stake in a critical piece of the continent's midstream fuel infrastructure.
The deal could also serve as a distribution channel for refined products from the Dangote refinery in Nigeria, which has been scaling up production and seeking markets across Africa.
Dangote's Broader Kenyan Ambitions
The pipeline stake fits into a rapidly expanding industrial footprint in Kenya. At the centre of this strategy is the USD 16 billion Dangote East Africa Refinery in Lamu County, a 700,000-barrel-per-day facility that broke ground on September 30, 2026.
The complex is designed to process crude oil and supply gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to Kenya and neighbouring markets, with a target completion window of 40 months.
Plans for the site also include a 1,000-megawatt power plant, with up to 500 megawatts potentially available for sale to the Kenyan government, alongside fertiliser and chemical manufacturing facilities.
Dangote Industries is separately in talks with the Kenyan government over an 800-kilometre crude oil pipeline linking the Turkana oil fields in the country's northwest to Lamu.
The pipeline would carry waxy crude from the South Lokichar Basin to the coast, feeding the planned refinery and opening up Kenya's domestic oil production.
Engineers India Limited is providing technical oversight for the broader project, with financing arranged alongside Afreximbank.
Lamu Port has already begun receiving heavy construction machinery for the refinery project, with a second batch of project cargo delivered in October 2026. Once the facility is operational, the port is expected to serve as the primary import and export gateway for the refinery, anchoring the wider LAPSSET trade corridor.
Dangote's Kenyan expansion has not yet extended to cement manufacturing.
In September 2026, Dangote Cement chief executive Arvind Pathak said the company would not build a new plant in Kenya in the medium term, citing difficulties in identifying suitable limestone reserves for a large-scale operation.
Further details on the structure of the KPC transaction, the specific Dangote entity involved and any outstanding regulatory approvals had not been disclosed at the time of publication.
Source: TUKO.co.ke