Lamu, Kenya — Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote and African leaders have launched a $16 billion oil refinery project on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast, aiming to reduce East Africa’s reliance on imported fuel and expand the region’s industrial capacity.
Kenyan President William Ruto joined Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and other African leaders at Wednesday’s groundbreaking ceremony in Mokowe, Lamu County.
The planned Dangote East Africa Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals complex will have capacity to process 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day, supplying petrol, diesel and jet fuel to Kenya and neighbouring markets.
Ruto described the development as a major economic investment that would strengthen regional cooperation and energy supply.
“It is an investment in energy security, industrialisation and regional integration,” he said at the ceremony.
Ruto called the project Kenya’s largest-ever foreign direct investment and said it would boost the country’s annual gross domestic product by 12%.
Dangote said the refinery would be commissioned within 40 months, setting a target of early 2030. The development is intended to build on his group’s experience operating a large refinery in Nigeria.
“We will come back here and commission this refinery in 40 months from today,” Dangote said.
The complex will also include a 1,000-megawatt power plant and facilities for polypropylene and base oil production, according to Dangote, extending its role beyond transport fuels into electricity and industrial materials.
Dangote said the project reflected a broader ambition to process more of Africa’s resources within the continent and retain the resulting jobs and economic value.
“Africa must industrialize Africa,” he said, arguing that the continent could not build lasting prosperity by “exporting what it has and importing what it needs.”
Abiy described the groundbreaking as a step towards strengthening Africa’s industrial capacity and creating opportunities across East Africa.
In a statement posted on X after the ceremony, the Ethiopian prime minister urged African investors and entrepreneurs to finance transformative projects.
“You, the industrial captains, investors, and entrepreneurs throughout the continent, must invest in Africa, have faith in our potential, and construct transformative projects which will determine our common continental future,” Abiy wrote.Close
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“The future of Africa is something that we shall have to build together.”
Museveni said Uganda would continue pursuing its own refinery, arguing that East Africa needed several facilities to meet regional demand.
“For Ugandan crude, I didn’t want to export any crude, I wanted to refine it locally,” he said.
The region needed “more than one or two refineries,” Museveni added.
Dangote said East African fuel consumption exceeded the planned Lamu facility’s processing capacity, presenting a market for additional regional production.
Leaders from Benin and Togo and former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo also attended the ceremony. Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and Tanzania sent delegations.
International engineering and technology firms are participating in the project. U.S.-based Honeywell said it had been selected to provide engineering services, technology licensing and equipment, extending its existing collaboration with Dangote’s Nigerian refining business.
Dangote has also offered regional governments a combined 30% stake in the Kenyan refinery, linking the investment to wider ambitions for regional ownership and economic integration.
The planned facility would position Lamu as a regional fuel processing centre, with its output intended to serve domestic and neighbouring markets. Dangote said the project would also target jet fuel exports to Europe and Britain.
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