Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, held a groundbreaking event to build an oil refinery in Kenya’s coastal Lamu region, helping create a broader industrial complex in East Africa.
The project is expected to be completed by 2030 and would be slightly larger than the Nigerian plant, which has now reached full capacity after starting operations in 2024.
The Kenyan government believes the refinery would strengthen fuel security, support industrialization, and create up to 60,000 jobs, while also generating downstream businesses in fertilizers, chemicals, and packaging.
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Aliko Dangote is Helping to Make Africa Self-sufficient
Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote and Kenyan President William Ruto broke ground on Wednesday to begin construction of a $16 billion oil refinery aimed at meeting growing demand for petroleum products across East Africa.
The oil magnate wants to replicate his group’s 700,000-barrel-per-day Nigerian refinery as countries including Kenya and Uganda look to start
“When you look at East Africa, not only East Africa, most of all the 54 countries
As part of the deal, Dangote has offered regional governments a combined 30% stake in the refinery. Annual demand for petroleum products in the region is estimated at 20 million to 30 million metric
The Nigerian billionaire said the Lamu project would generate about 1,000 megawatts (MW) from petroleum coke, or petcoke, roughly twice the Lagos refinery’s power capacity. About 500 MW of the entire project could be sold to the Kenyan government.
The proposed refinery is intended to serve Kenya and neighboring markets, including Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to President Ruto’s earlier statements about the project.
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A Timely Investment for East Africa
This investment is timely as Kenya remains heavily dependent on imported petroleum products. The East African country imported 5.5 million tons of petroleum products in 2025, up 12.2% from the previous year, while domestic petroleum demand rose 9.9% to 5.7 million tons, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. The country’s petroleum import bill was about Sh528.8 billion ($4.1 billion) in 2025.
“Africa cannot build lasting prosperity by exporting what it has and importing what it needs,” Dangote said at the groundbreaking ceremony in Kenya. “We must produce more of what we consume; we must process more of what we produce. More value must be created here at home in Africa; that’s why we are here today.”
The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority expects demand for petroleum products, excluding LPG and fuel oil, to rise from 5.93 billion liters in 2025 to 6.63 billion liters in 2029. Kenya’s petroleum infrastructure also serves landlocked countries in East and Central Africa, making Mombasa and the nation’s pipeline network important regional supply routes.
Dangote has said the Kenyan refinery would be financed through internal cash flow, bonds, and an initial public offering, while East African countries could potentially take a combined 30% equity stake.
The financing plan aligns with Dangote’s expansion of its Nigerian refinery. The group plans to double capacity at the Lagos plant to 1.4 million bpd and is raising capital through an initial public offering for the refinery alongside other funding sources.
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The Nigerian refinery is being presented to investors at a valuation of about ₦63 trillion ($47.6 billion), with the company targeting ₦2.15 trillion ($1.6 billion) in what would be Africa’s largest planned initial public offering. According to its prospectus, the refinery recorded a net profit of $1.82 billion in the first half of 2026 on revenue above $13 billion.
Main Image: Kenyan President William Ruto (R) with Dangote Group CEO, Aliko Dangote (L). Image Credit: X/William Ruto
