Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Aziz receives approval to set up gas plant in Kenya

Yusuf Abdulfatai -

The Kenyan government has granted Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Aziz a license to establish a cooking gas plant and storage facilities at the Mombasa port through his liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supply company, Taifa Gas.

Daniel Kiptoo, the director of EPRA, Kenya’s energy and petroleum regulator, confirmed that the license to build the plant had already been issued. “Yes, we have already issued them the license to build the plant,” he said, referring to Rostam Aziz and his company Taifa Gas.

The move follows a trade agreement signed in April 2022 by former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu in an effort to reduce the cost of handling and evacuating cooking gas from ships to the mainland and thus cooking gas prices in Kenya.

By allowing the Tanzanian billionaire businessman, who was ranked as the first dollar billionaire in Tanzania by Forbes in 2013, to establish a 30,000-tonne LPG handling facility in Kenya’s Export Processing Zone, the Kenyan government has demonstrated its commitment to fostering stronger bilateral ties with Tanzania under the leadership of William Ruto.

The issuance of a retail cooking gas license to Aziz in Kenya is set to spark a market battle with oil giants such as Vivo, Rubis, and Total. These companies are competing for control of the 2.87 million households (or 23.9 percent of Kenyan households) that rely on cooking gas.

The license also sets the stage for a billionaire brawl between Aziz and Mohamed Jaffer, with the initial goal of lowering the cost of handling and evacuating cooking gas from ships to the mainland. As a result, dealers would be able to pass on cost savings to customers.

In addition to Aziz’s stake in Taifa Gas, the Tanzanian billionaire also owns Caspian Mining, a contract mining company in Tanzania, as well as real estate in both Dubai and Oman.

In 2014, the Tanzanian billionaire sold his Vodacom Tanzania stake to Vodacom Group South Africa for an estimated $400 million.