Africa’s Richest Man Eyes Oil Refinery in Kenya

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote is looking at Kenya as the site of a 650,000-barrel-a-day oil refinery that he intends to build in East Africa, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing an interview with him.

“I’m leaning more towards Mombasa because Mombasa has a much larger, deeper port”, Dangote said in the interview.

The report comes after Kenyan President William Ruto said last month that East African countries were discussing plans for a joint oil refinery at the Tanzanian port of Tanga that is modeled on Nigeria’s Dangote operation.

However, Dangote compared Kenya’s Mombasa with Tanzania’s Tanga port, saying: “Kenyans consume more. It’s a bigger economy.”

“The ball is in the hands of President Ruto”, he said. “Whatever President Ruto says is what I’ll do”, he added.

Dangote estimated that the refinery would cost $15bn to $17bn to build.

East Africa currently imports all of its refined petroleum products, mainly from the Middle East, leaving the region vulnerable to supply disruptions and price spikes of the kind seen during the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Dangote, Africa’s richest man, told an infrastructure summit in Nairobi last month that he could replicate his 650,000-barrel-a-day Nigerian refinery in East Africa, provided governments in the region supported the initiative.

(reuters, im)