The African Richest man, Aliko Dangote, is in the affirmative stage of considering Mombasa as the preferred location for a proposed 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery in East Africa after previously exploring plans in Tanzania.
Dangote, the owner of Nigeria’s Dangote refinery, 650,000 barrels per day, with a plan to upgrade to 1 million barrels per day, in an interview with the Financial Times, said that Mombasa offers better port access and stronger market opportunities than other options in the region.
The refinery could cost between $15bn and $17bn. The project comes about a year after the launch of Dangote’s 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery in Lagos, which is currently the world’s largest single-train refinery. The planned refinery would process crude oil from Uganda and other international suppliers while helping East Africa reduce its reliance on imported petroleum products.
Dangote told the Financial Times that he now prefers Kenya over Tanzania for the project after reviewing earlier plans tied to Uganda’s crude export pipeline. He said Mombasa’s deeper port and larger economy make it a more attractive location than Tanga, the Tanzanian city previously considered for the refinery.
Dangote also noted that Kenya’s fuel demand and market size strengthen the case for locating the refinery there. He added that ships could transport crude oil directly to the refinery, removing the need to depend on pipeline connections.
He said the project would largely depend on support from William Ruto’s administration, adding that the Kenyan president’s position would determine the next step. Dangote also called on East African governments to introduce policies that would protect local refining projects from unfair import competition.
According to him, refineries cannot survive without some level of government protection. Last month, Dangote said at an infrastructure summit in Nairobi that he could replicate the Lekki refinery model in East Africa if governments in the region backed the initiative.
