Dangote to Launch $16 Billion Refinery in Kenya 

Preparations have been made for the launch of the $16 billion Dangote East Africa Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals Special Economic Zone, scheduled to take place today in Mokowe, Lamu County, Kenya. 

The proposed refinery is expected to process 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day and is targeted for completion by 2030.

It will process crude from Kenya’s Turkana oilfields as well as supplies from other parts of Africa, to reduce the region’s dependence on imported petroleum products.

Speaking to reporters in Nairobi on Tuesday, Aliko Dangote said the project was part of a broader effort to shift Africa from exporting raw materials to producing and selling finished products within the continent.

He said he expected most African countries to achieve greater fuel self-sufficiency by 2030, stressing that refining should take place within Africa regardless of the specific country.

“By 2030, the majority of African countries will be self-sufficient. It does not matter where it is refined, but it should be in the African continent, on the soil of Africa,” he said.

Dangote also dismissed concerns surrounding the Lamu project, which has faced a land rights case and opposition from Greenpeace and other groups over potential environmental impacts.

He said opposition to major industrial projects was expected and suggested that some critics were opposed to Africa’s development.

“There’s actually no problem with these sort of cases,” Dangote said. “There are people who don’t want the development of Africa.”

Dangote, who has announced plans to invest an additional $50 billion across Africa after committing more than $25 billion to existing businesses, said the next phase of the Dangote Group’s expansion would combine large-scale industrial investments with wider African ownership through capital markets.

Speaking during a fireside chat with Nairobi Securities Exchange Chief Executive Officer Frank Mwiti at an investor engagement organised by the exchange, Dangote said Africa needed to pursue large-scale investments if it was to compete globally.

He said the group’s additional investment would focus on creating wealth for Africans and strengthening domestic markets rather than pursuing small-scale projects.

“We have already invested more than $25 billion, but right now, we’re going ahead to invest an additional $50 billion,” Dangote said.

“We want to create and generate wealth for Africans, to make sure that we defend our markets. And the only way to defend the market is not to do baby steps. It’s better we do big scale.”

President William Ruto’s chief economic adviser, David Ndii, said the Lamu refinery grew out of discussions among African policymakers, financiers and business leaders on how the continent could use its natural resources to support industrialisation rather than simply export them.

According to Ndii, those discussions identified petroleum refining as a strategic opportunity for East Africa and led to engagements involving Dangote, Ruto, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and other regional leaders.

He said a closed-door meeting in April assessed an East African market for finished petroleum products of about 20 million metric tonnes annually, with the potential to grow to 30 million tonnes.

Ndii said the thinking behind the project was influenced by an earlier Nairobi meeting convened by President Ruto and Africa Finance Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer Samaila Zubairu, which examined why infrastructure designed to move raw materials abroad often attracts financing more easily than projects aimed at processing those resources locally.

Quoting an observation by Zubairu, Ndii said Africa effectively exports its resources cheaply and imports finished goods at higher costs, arguing that the Lamu project could help reverse that pattern.

The refinery project is also linked to Dangote’s broader plan to expand African ownership of major businesses.

At the investor engagement, Dangote said the ongoing public offer of Dangote Petroleum Refinery was not primarily intended to raise funds but to enable more Africans to participate in the wealth generated by industrial growth.

He said the group planned to gradually offer more shares in its businesses as investor demand increased.

“It’s not because we need the money. No. It’s because we want to share this prosperity with everybody,” he said. “The real purpose is for us to democratise wealth-making.”

Dangote said all of the group’s operating companies would eventually be opened to greater public ownership, including a new shipping business under development and its expanding fertiliser operations.

He said the goal was to create millions of African shareholders who could benefit through both dividends and growth in the value of the underlying businesses.

Dangote also said that if the Lamu refinery is eventually listed on a stock exchange, it should be listed in Kenya rather than automatically in Nigeria.