Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has acquired a 25 percent stake valued at more than $315 million in Kenya Pipeline Company. The purchase expands his reach into East African energy infrastructure just weeks after launching plans for a major crude processing hub along Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast.

According to Reuters, Dangote confirmed the transaction Wednesday, describing the pipeline holding as a vital link for distributing refined fuels across regional hubs. A day earlier, Kenyan President William Ruto told attendees at an energy forum that private backers had secured a quarter of the utility, though he stopped short of naming the buyer.

A high-stakes regional push

The purchase slots into Nairobi’s broader push to monetize state-backed assets. Earlier this year, Kenya floated a 65 percent stake in the pipeline operator through an oversubscribed initial public offering to shore up strained public finances. Domestic funds secured 7.45 billion shares, while regional institutional investors took down 3.86 billion shares.

Shares of Kenya Pipeline traded at 9.06 shillings shortly after midday in Nairobi, pushing total market capitalization to 164 billion shillings, or roughly $1.26 billion. Dangote’s 25 percent holding is worth approximately 41 billion shillings, or $315.9 million, giving him substantial sway over regional fuel movements.

Rewiring East African energy

The utility operates the primary arterial network piping imported fuel from Mombasa inland toward Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, and Eldoret. Securing distribution assets positions Dangote to integrate transport logistics ahead of bringing regional refining capacity online, directly challenging traditional trading houses that have long dominated imported product flows.

That infrastructure play follows a landmark Sept. 30 ceremony where Dangote and Ruto broke ground on a $16 billion refinery in Lamu. Slated to begin operations around 2030, the 700,000-barrel-a-day plant is engineered to cut East Africa’s costly reliance on imported diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel.

Fueling a cross-border empire

The Lamu facility mirrors the technical specifications and daily capacity of Dangote’s $20 billion refinery outside Lagos, Nigeria. Both projects underscore an aggressive playbook: build industrial-scale processing assets at coastal ports, then lock down the downstream logistics channels required to supply captive inland consumer markets across sub-Saharan Africa.

To finance these sprawling capital expenditures, Dangote launched an initial public offering for his oil refinery, opening ownership of the $20 billion facility to retail investors in what is set to become Africa’s largest share sale. The share sale offered 4.1 billion shares at 525 naira each to raise $1.6 billion, pegging the implied valuation near $49 billion and providing the cash cushion needed to fund his East African campaign.