Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has selected Kenya as the location for his proposed 700,000 barrels-per-day oil refinery, ending speculation over where the multi-billion-dollar project would be sited.
A senior official of Dangote Industries Limited confirmed on Tuesday that the refinery will be constructed in Lamu, a coastal island in Kenya, with work expected to be completed within 30 months.
The company’s Vice President for Oil and Gas, Edwin Devakumar, disclosed the development in an interview with AFP, describing the planned facility as a project similar in scale to the Dangote Refinery in Nigeria.
Before the decision, Tanzania had also been considered as a potential host for the refinery.
Dangote visited Tanzania last month, where he met with President Samia Suluhu Hassan to explain the commercial and technical reasons behind the decision to establish the refinery in Lamu rather than Tanzania.
According to a statement from Dangote’s office, the Nigerian businessman also invited Tanzania to participate in the investment in the Kenyan project.
Prior to confirming Lamu as the preferred location, Dangote had indicated that Kenya’s port city of Mombasa was among the options under consideration.
The planned refinery is expected to strengthen East Africa’s refining capacity and expand Dangote’s growing footprint across the continent.
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Dangote’s existing 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery in Lagos, which commenced operations in 2024, is currently the largest refinery in Africa. The company has also unveiled plans to increase its processing capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day by 2028, a move that could make it the world’s largest refinery.
The refinery has significantly transformed Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector by reducing dependence on imported refined products despite the country’s status as a major crude oil producer.
In addition to meeting domestic demand, the facility exports aviation fuel to markets including the United States, Europe and Brazil.
Dangote Refinery has also expanded its regional exports, announcing months ago that it had supplied 12 cargoes totaling 456,000 tonnes of refined petroleum products to countries including Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Tanzania, Ghana and Togo.
The company is also expected to list the Dangote Refinery on the Nigerian Stock Exchange next year.