Africa’s richest businessman, Aliko Dangote, will build a proposed 700,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery in Kenya, with Lamu confirmed as the location for the multibillion-shilling project.
The announcement ends months of speculation over where the mega refinery would be established, with Tanzania and Mombasa previously among the locations under consideration.
Edwin Devakumar, Vice President in charge of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited, confirmed that the refinery will be constructed in Lamu, a coastal island in Kenya, saying the project is expected to take approximately 30 months to complete.
The planned refinery will be similar in scale to the Dangote Refinery in Nigeria, which began operations in 2024 with a processing capacity of 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
Before settling on Lamu, Dangote had indicated he was considering Mombasa as the preferred location. Tanzania was also under consideration, with the Nigerian billionaire holding talks with Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan during a visit to the country last month.
According to a statement from Dangote’s office, he explained the commercial and technical reasons behind the decision to establish the refinery in Lamu and invited Tanzania to participate in the investment.
Dangote Industries is also planning a major expansion of its Nigerian refinery, increasing its capacity from 650,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day by 2028. Once completed, the facility is expected to become the world’s largest oil refinery by processing capacity.
The proposed Lamu refinery is expected to strengthen Kenya’s position as a regional energy hub while supporting fuel supply across East Africa, creating employment opportunities and boosting industrial development in the region.
