Five African Leaders Launch USD 16 Billion Dangote Refinery Project

Five African heads of state on Wednesday joined Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote for the groundbreaking of a USD 16-billion oil refinery in Kenya’s coastal town of Lamu, highlighting East Africa’s push to process its own resources and reduce dependence on imported refined products.

The refinery is expected to process 700,000 barrels of oil per day when completed in 40 months. Kenyan President William Ruto hosted his counterparts from Uganda, Ethiopia, Togo and Benin, along with Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo, at the ceremony. The leaders symbolically shoveled soil at the site to mark the start of construction.

Dangote said the project reflected the need for Africa to build its own industrial capacity rather than exporting raw materials and importing finished products.

“Africa must industrialise Africa,” Dangote said, adding that the continent cannot be “exporting what it has and importing what it needs”.

The refinery will rely on crude oil from neighbouring countries, including Uganda and South Sudan. Uganda plans to export its oil through Tanzania, while South Sudan currently exports oil through Sudan.

Dangote said the region has a sufficiently large market for the refinery’s output, noting that East African countries consume much more than the plant’s planned 700,000-barrel-per-day capacity.

The project was initially planned for Tanzania’s coastal town of Tanga, but Lamu was later selected because of its deeper waters, solid ground capable of supporting heavy equipment and deep-sea access, Dangote said.

The refinery is part of a broader push for African countries to process natural resources closer to where they are produced, potentially reducing reliance on imported finished products while strengthening regional industrial capacity.

Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and Tanzania also sent heads of delegation to represent their presidents at the ceremony, underlining the project’s regional significance.