Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, has broken ground on a $2.5 billion fuel storage and pipeline project in Namibia and raised his investment target for the continent to $60 billion by 2030.

Dangote stood beside Namibia's President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah at the launch near Walvis Bay on Wednesday, 4 November, for the first phase of a project designed to turn Namibia into a regional fuel distribution hub for southern Africa.

Storage first, pipeline to follow

The storage facility, at Farm 58 about 10 kilometres east of Walvis Bay, will hold about 600 million litres of fuel — 360 million litres of diesel and 240 million litres of petrol, or about four million barrels in total. Dangote said the depot would take 18 months at most to complete.

A proposed 1,700-kilometre regional pipeline would then carry fuel through Botswana and South Africa, with connections also discussed towards Zambia and other neighbouring countries. Its final route and length have yet to be determined through detailed engineering work, route surveys and regulatory approvals.

A bigger Africa bet

At the same event, Dangote raised his Africa-wide investment ambition from $50 billion to $60 billion by the end of the decade, a rise of a fifth. He said the aim was to help landlocked countries buy petroleum products more cheaply by improving supply routes across the region.

Afreximbank president George Elombi said at the launch that the bank would have "no difficulty" lending Dangote $10 billion, although no facility has been agreed. Dangote is also seeking wider African access to his refinery's $1.6 billion share sale, which drew orders of about three times the amount sought.

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