Dangote and Ruto break ground on planned Lamu refinery

Aliko Dangote and Kenyan President William Ruto took part in a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, September 30, for a planned $16 billion refinery in Lamu, Kenya. The facility is designed to process 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day, but construction progress and a completion date have not been independently established in the available reports. Dangote, whose company is developing the project, presented the refinery as part of a broader effort to expand African processing and reduce reliance on imported refined fuel. He said the facility would be one element of a wider industrial push, rather than enough on its own to meet the continent’s future demand. Regional leaders, including Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, attended the ceremony. Before the groundbreaking, Dangote predicted that most African countries would be self-sufficient in refined fuel by 2030. That is his forecast, not an independently verified projection. He argued that refining more crude within Africa would allow countries to retain more economic value and support jobs in processing and manufacturing.