NAIROBI, July 7 – Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has confirmed that his proposed 700,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery will be built in Kenya, positioning the country to host what is expected to become the largest refinery in East Africa.
The announcement ends months of speculation over whether the project would be located in Kenya or Tanzania and marks another major step in Dangote Industries’ strategy to expand its footprint across the African energy sector.
A spokesman for Dangote Industries Limited confirmed that the project is expected to cost up to $17 billion, making it one of the largest private industrial investments ever planned in East Africa.
Once completed, the refinery will have the capacity to process 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day, surpassing existing refining facilities in the region. The plant is expected to supply refined petroleum products to Kenya and neighbouring countries, helping reduce East Africa’s dependence on imported fuels while strengthening regional energy security.
According to the company, Aliko Dangote personally committed to the leaders of Kenya and Uganda that he would develop a refinery modelled on the facility his group recently commissioned near Lagos, Nigeria.
The planned refinery will replicate the scale of the company’s flagship refinery in Nigeria, which has a capacity of approximately 650,000 barrels per day and is recognised as the world’s largest single-train refinery.
The Kenyan project is expected to take about five years to complete, although details regarding its financing structure, construction timeline and the exact coastal location have yet to be disclosed.
The investment underscores Dangote’s growing ambitions to support Africa’s industrialisation through large-scale infrastructure projects while addressing persistent fuel supply challenges across the continent. If completed as planned, the refinery could significantly reshape East Africa’s downstream petroleum market by increasing regional refining capacity, lowering reliance on imported refined products and strengthening intra-African energy trade.
