Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, will build a 700,000-barrels per day East African oil refinery in Lamu on the Kenya coast, a senior company official said on Tuesday, ending speculation over the mega-project's location.
The location of the massive refinery – similar to Dangote's sprawling complex in Nigeria – was confirmed to AFP by Edwin Devakumar, the vice-president in charge of oil and gas at Dangote Industries Limited.
It will take around 30 months to build the facility in East Africa's largest economy, he added.
There have been conflicting messages on the project's location for months, with Tanzania and the Kenyan port of Mombasa also mooted.
Dangote explains to Tanzania why he chose Kenya
Nigerian billionaire Dangote was in Tanzania late last month, where he held talks with President Samia Suluhu Hassan and explained "the commercial and technical considerations behind the Group's decision to locate its planned East African refinery in Lamu", according to a statement from his office.
He also invited Tanzania to participate in the Lamu investment.
His 650,000-bpd refinery in Nigeria, online since 2024, is the largest on the continent and is due to more than double capacity to 1.4 million bpd by 2028 to become the largest in the world.
Kenya's President William Ruto said in April that the planned Dangote refinery would process oil from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda.
