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Last week Amsons Group agreed to pay more than 230 million dollars for the Tanzanian fuel business of Oryx Energies. If regulators approve, the deal will more than double Amsons' fuel storage, take its station network to about 300 and bring it within reach of the largest fuel distributor in Tanzania. It is the latest in a run of acquisitions led by Edha Nahdi, the group's managing director, who started his first company at 19. This is how he built it.
The family business
Amsons was founded by Nahdi's father, Abdallah Munif Nahdi, who began trading in the early 1980s and still chairs the group. Edha, whose full name is Edhah Abdallah Munif, grew up in the business. In 2006, at 19, he started Camel Oil, a fuel importer based in Dar es Salaam.
Camel Oil grew steadily. It now imports fuel through Dar es Salaam, stores it at a 60,000 cubic-metre depot in Kurasini and sells it through more than 60 stations, as well as exporting to Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia. Its share of the Tanzanian fuel market rose to 11.4% in 2024–25, from 5.54%.
Today Nahdi owns 80% of Amsons Industries, with his brothers Hassan and Yasser holding 10% each. The group mills wheat, runs fuel and gas businesses, container depots, ready-mix concrete and property, and employs more than 10,000 people. Billionaires.Africa counts him among four Tanzanians worth at least a billion dollars, and he is the youngest of them. In 2015 he was named African Young Business Leader of the Year.
Buying what multinationals sell
The pattern of the last few years is clear: as global companies reduce their exposure to East Africa, Nahdi has been the buyer.
- Bamburi Cement, Kenya. In December 2024 Amsons bought 96.54% of Bamburi, one of Kenya's best-known industrial companies, previously controlled by Holcim. The July 2024 offer valued it at about 23.6 billion shillings, or 183 million dollars. By the end of June 2025 Amsons held 99.98%.
- East African Portland Cement, Kenya. His Kalahari Cement took control with 68.7% after buying stakes from Holcim and Kenya's National Social Security Fund.
- Tanzania. A grinding plant at Mbagala in Dar es Salaam and a 2023 agreement to buy Holcim's 65% of Mbeya Cement.
- Power. A 2025 agreement with Zambia's Exergy Africa for about 1,300 megawatts of power plants, worth about 900 million dollars.
Each deal fits a single idea: own the basic inputs of a growing region, from fuel and cement to concrete and power, and buy them when sellers are keen to leave.
The Oryx deal
Oryx Energies agreed on 16 October to sell its Tanzanian fuel business to Amsons for more than 230 million dollars. The business includes 54 stations, a depot at Kurasini with about 56,000 cubic metres of storage, the distribution network and half of TIPER, the fuel terminal in Dar es Salaam.
- Market share. Oryx's share of the Tanzanian oil market fell to 2.8% in 2024–25. Combined with Camel Oil, Amsons would hold about 14.2%, close to Puma Energy's 15.5%.
- Storage. Amsons' capacity would rise from about 300,000 to 800,000 tonnes.
- Stations. The retail network would reach about 300.
- Status. The deal needs regulatory approval, and no closing date has been set.
For Oryx, the sale comes as its chief executive and a trading manager agreed this month to buy a majority of the company in a management buyout valuing it at about 1 billion dollars. "We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Amsons Group," said Oryx chief executive Moussa Diao. "We are delighted to finalize this acquisition," said Nahdi.
Beyond business
Amsons has committed 35 million dollars to ten mother-and-child hospitals in Kenya. Speaking at a forum in Kigali in May, Nahdi argued that Africa must build its own industry: "We can no longer depend on external solutions."
What comes next
Nahdi's strategy has been to buy well-established businesses from companies that no longer want them, and to run them as a regional group. The challenge now is integration. Amsons is absorbing two Kenyan cement companies, a Tanzanian cement plant, a large fuel business and a power project at the same time. If it manages that, it will be one of the few African-owned industrial groups with real scale across East Africa, and one of the most important.
Methodology & caveats
- Drawn from Billionaires.Africa reporting on 22 October 2026 and earlier coverage of Amsons' acquisitions. The Oryx deal terms, market shares, storage figures and quotes are as reported.
- Nahdi's billionaire status is a Billionaires.Africa calculation; no specific net-worth figure is asserted here. Company values are not measures of personal wealth.
- The Oryx deal is subject to regulatory approval.
- Editorial analysis, not investment, legal or tax advice.
© 2026 Billionaires.Africa Inc.
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