Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has unveiled plans to build another 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery in East Africa, signalling an ambitious expansion of his refining footprint beyond Nigeria as the continent seeks to cut reliance on imported fuel.
Dangote disclosed this during a presidential panel at the Africa We Build Summit, organised by Africa Finance Corporation, on Thursday in Nairobi, saying his company is ready to replicate the scale and model of its Lagos-based refinery if governments in the region provide the needed support. Our correspondent monitored the proceedings of the panel session.
He sought the support of East African governments to replicate his Nigeria-scale refinery in the region in a move that could reshape fuel supply.
His remarks came as Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania intensified talks to establish a joint refining hub in the Tanzanian port city of Tanga, a project expected to process crude from across the region, including supplies from the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
Speaking at the forum, Dangote expressed confidence in the feasibility of the project, citing his experience in delivering the 650,000bpd refinery in Nigeria.
He said, “I can give commitment to the presidents here today that if they support the refinery, we will build the identical one that we have in Nigeria, a 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery. The discussions are still early, but it will work. There is nothing that can stop it. We have done it before in Nigeria, and that is why we are taking this bold step again.”
Dangote revealed that his group had already commenced expansion works in Nigeria to scale up refining capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day, a move he said would position the facility as the largest refinery in the world.