Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has settled on Lamu County in Kenya as the site for a proposed Sh2.2 trillion oil refinery that could reshape the fuel supply landscape across East Africa.
The planned facility would process up to 700,000 barrels of crude a day, making it the largest refinery in East Africa and the second largest on the continent behind Dangote’s own Lagos refinery. A site on Lamu Island has already been earmarked, with soil testing and preliminary engineering work under way.
Construction is expected to take about five years, financed through a combination of internal resources, corporate bonds and a planned public share offering. The move builds on an announcement Dangote made earlier this year that he intended to extend his refining business into East Africa using the Lagos plant as a template.
Once built, the refinery is expected to supply Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, cutting the region’s reliance on imported refined fuel and bolstering energy security across East Africa.
Source: allafrica.com