By Oke Peter

Dangote Group President, Aliko Dangote, has officially commenced construction of a proposed $16 billion, 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Lamu, Kenya, marking the expansion of the Nigerian conglomerate’s downstream investment into East Africa.


Dangote and Kenyan President William Ruto broke ground at the site of the proposed $16 billion refinery on Wednesday, where the billionaire plans to replicate his group’s refinery in Nigeria.


Speaking at the event, Dangote said the refinery would be commissioned within 40 months.


“We will come back here and commission this refinery in 40 months from today. The East African refinery is designed to process approximately 700,000 barrels of crude per day, it will also generate 1,000 megawatts, twice that of Lagos,” he said.

“We have 1 million tons of polypropylene and we also have a base oil production that we’ll supply and also we will supply at least 20 percent of jet fuel consumed by Europe and the UK, like what we did during this crisis.


“If not because of the Dangote refinery, a lot of people wouldn’t have had the chance to go on summer holiday in Europe, so we’re very proud to say that Africa is helping Europe to get jet fuel.”


Dangote said the group would not merely build tanks, pipelines, processing units, and jetties, but it would establish an industrial ecosystem.


“From our experience in Nigeria, this will give birth to an industrial zone, an ecosystem of energy, petrochemicals, logistics, engineering, marine services, manufacturing skills, technology, small and medium-sized enterprise and thousands of opportunities for people across the value chain,” he said.


Dangote also said he would establish a training school to train 1,000 Kenyan engineering graduates.


Also speaking, Ruto said the project is set to transform the energy and industrial landscape of Kenya and the region.


“This is bigger than a refinery. It is an investment in energy security, industrialisation, and regional integration,” he said.


Ruto added that the refinery is a “declaration that Africa has entered a new age in which we will increasingly finance, build, process and add value here at home”.

•Aliko Dangote

The development comes despite a Kenyan court ruling that ordered a pause on the construction of the refinery project in the East African country, following a petition by some locals opposing the project.


Jane Onyango, the judge, ordered that “the status quo prevailing” be maintained in Lamu county, where the refinery is planned to be built.


Dangote Group had said the court ruling may affect some site activities, but the groundbreaking would proceed as planned.