Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Aziz says his Taifa Gas plant in Mombasa will open in months

Rostam Aziz, the chairman of Tanzania's Taifa Group and the first dollar billionaire Forbes ever identified in Tanzania, says the Sh16 billion ($123 million) liquefied petroleum gas terminal his company has been building at Mombasa's Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone will be commissioned within the coming months, a move that will introduce the first serious competition into a Kenyan cooking gas import market that 2 players have divided almost entirely between themselves.

Aziz made the announcement on Tuesday at a Kenya-Tanzania business forum, inviting both President William Ruto and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan to attend the opening. "I invite you, your Excellencies, to the opening of our LPG terminal in Mombasa in the coming months," he said.

When the plant opens, it will be the largest LPG storage terminal in East Africa. Its initial capacity is 30,000 metric tonnes, expandable to 45,000 metric tonnes, spread across 12 mega spherical storage tanks on a 30-acre site in Likoni, Mombasa County. Construction began in 2023 and was launched by President Ruto, but legal challenges from residents of the Dongo Kundu area delayed progress until a High Court struck out the petition in late 2025, clearing the way for the final phase.

The market it is entering

Kenya's cooking gas import market is one of the most concentrated in the region. African Gas and Oil Company, known as AGOL and owned by Mombasa businessman Mohammed Jaffer, handled 90% of all LPG imported into Kenya in the 6 months to December 2025, a volume of 207,987,805 kilograms. Lake Gas, which operates a 10,000-tonne facility in Vipingo, Kilifi County, took the remaining 10% with 22,020,366 kilograms. Together, the 2 companies account for more than 98% of Kenya's imported cooking gas supply.

AGOL operates a 25,000-tonne capacity facility in Shimanzi, Mombasa, which it expanded from a smaller plant that has served as the anchor of Jaffer's grip on the Kenyan cooking gas trade for more than a decade. Jaffer also owns Grain Bulk Handlers, which holds a near monopoly on bulk grain cargo discharge at the Port of Mombasa, and Proto Energy, the maker of the Pro Gas brand. His dominance in LPG handling has long been a source of concern for industry observers who argue that limited competition has kept wholesale handling fees high, ultimately passing costs to the consumer.

Taifa Gas's 30,000-tonne plant, when it opens, will immediately be the largest LPG terminal in Kenya by capacity and will give the market a third, well-capitalised player with no existing relationships or pricing obligations to the established duopoly. Business Daily Africa noted that increased competition is expected to trigger wholesale price wars that would ultimately lower the retail price of cooking gas for Kenyan consumers, who have been squeezed by rising LPG prices in the wake of supply disruptions linked to the US-Iran conflict.

The regional network behind the plant

Aziz framed the Mombasa plant not as a standalone Kenyan investment but as the third node of a regional LPG supply network that Taifa is assembling across East Africa's Indian Ocean coast.

Taifa already operates terminals in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and in Zanzibar. The Mombasa plant will complete a 3-location system designed to absorb supply shocks in any one market by drawing from the others. "When the gas runs low in Mombasa, it can be supplied from Dar es Salaam, and when Dar es Salaam faces shortages, it can be replenished from Mombasa. Zanzibar will also benefit from the same network," Aziz said.

The geographic logic is straightforward. LPG is imported by ship in bulk parcels. A network of terminals along the same coastline allows a single cargo to be distributed across multiple markets and allows each market to draw on the others' inventory during demand spikes or import delays. It also gives Taifa meaningful negotiating leverage with international LPG suppliers, since combined East African demand across 3 terminals is significantly more attractive than a single Kenyan facility.

Taifa Gas is already the largest LPG supply company in Tanzania, where it has supplied the Kenyan retail market via road for years while the Mombasa plant was under construction. Once the plant is open, that road-based cross-border trade will largely shift to direct sea imports at Mombasa, reducing transport costs and improving delivery reliability.

Aziz and the broader Taifa expansion

Separately from the Mombasa plant announcement, Taifa Gas recently agreed to acquire a 49% stake in PanAfrican Energy, the Tanzanian company operating the Songo Songo gas field since 2001. That deal, which follows the exit of Toronto-listed Orca Exploration from PanAfrican Energy, will see Amber Energy Investment take 51% and Taifa take 49%. The Songo Songo field supplies natural gas to industrial customers and to Tanzania's national power grid.

"This deal is a pivotal moment for Tanzania," Aziz said when the PanAfrican Energy agreement was announced. "Greater Tanzanian ownership builds on those benefits, deepens industrial capacity and keeps profit in the country, creating wealth for everyone."

The Mombasa LPG plant and the Songo Songo gas field acquisition together trace the outline of a Taifa Group that is building from its base in LPG distribution into upstream gas production and regional infrastructure. Aziz was identified by Forbes as Tanzania's first dollar billionaire in 2013, a ranking built on the Taifa Gas business he had developed into the dominant LPG company in a country that runs largely on cooking gas in its urban centres. The Mombasa plant is the most visible expression yet of how far that ambition extends beyond Tanzania's borders.