Dangote: Why I'm looking at Kenya for oil refinery venture

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 in the interview compared Kenya's Mombasa to ​Tanzania's Tanga port, and said, "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 it would cost $15 billion to $17 billion to build the refinery, the FT report said.

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

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

President William Ruto, during the summit, praised Dangote for his transformative industrial role in Africa, particularly regarding his contributions to manufacturing, cement, and oil refining. Ruto highlighted Dangote's investment in the Dangote Refinery as a key solution to continental fuel challenges.

“Nigeria has been a producer of oil for as long as we can remember. Yet not long ago, people in Nigeria queued for hours at petrol stations in search of fuel. This persisted for years; until an African stepped forward to change the narrative,” he said.

“That African is Aliko Dangote, who built the Dangote Refinery. The solution to Nigeria’s long-standing fuel challenge did not come from Europe or Asia, it came from within Nigeria itself."