Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Aliko Dangote, the chairman of Dangote Group and Africa’s richest man, has made an astonishing pledge to build a second mega-refinery in East Africa, directly mirroring his massive 650,000 barrels-per-day facility in Lagos, Nigeria, provided he receives strong backing from regional governments. The announcement, made at the 2026 Africa We Build Summit in Nairobi on Thursday, April 23, 2026, signals a dramatic acceleration of the industrialist’s $40 billion expansion plan and a significant shift in the continent’s downstream energy landscape.
Speaking during a high-level presidential panel alongside Kenya’s President William Ruto and Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, Dangote gave a firm commitment to replicate his flagship project. “I can give commitment to the two presidents that are here. If they will support the refinery, we will build the identical one that we have in Nigeria — 650,000 barrels per day,” Dangote declared, his remarks met with enthusiastic applause from the summit attendees. He further added, “My commitment here today is that if we agree with the three or four governments here about the refinery, we will lead and make sure that the refinery is built within the next four or five years”. According to multiple reports, the proposed facility would be built in Tanga, Tanzania, strategically located on the Indian Ocean coast. A pipeline would then connect the refinery to Kenya’s Mombasa port, creating a powerful new corridor to efficiently distribute fuel across the entire East African region, including to landlocked nations like Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The timing of Dangote’s announcement is heavily influenced by a major geopolitical shock. The ongoing war in Iran has severely disrupted shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global oil supplies. This has caused a staggering surge in the price of Jet A1 fuel in Nigeria, from approximately $900 per metric tonne to over $3,000 in just 45 days. The crisis has exposed the profound vulnerabilities of African economies that rely heavily on imported finished petroleum products. As a report by the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) launched at the same summit notes, Africa currently imports around 70% of its refined fuel, a structural weakness that drains billions from the continent. The report states that demand for refined fuels is projected to grow by 56% by 2040, creating a supply shortfall equivalent to building at least two more Dangote-sized refineries.
Dangote’s message to African leaders was blunt: the era of exporting raw materials and importing finished goods at a premium cost is a path to poverty. “We are a continent of imports. We export raw materials, which means we export jobs, and when we import, we import poverty,” he told the gathering. He cited a concrete example from his home market, noting that the packaging for cement, flour, and rice in Nigeria is made from locally produced polypropylene, a petrochemical derived from refining. He warned that without local production, these industries would collapse under skyrocketing import costs.
Regional leaders present at the summit immediately signaled their alignment with Dangote’s vision, framing the project as a cornerstone of a new economic transformation agenda for the region. President William Ruto confirmed that East African nations are in active discussions to build a joint refinery at Tanga that would process crude oil from the DRC, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda. He enthusiastically welcomed Dangote’s pledge, stating, “We welcome his announcement at the summit that he was ready to partner with Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in building an oil refinery in Tanga, Tanzania. We thank Mr Dangote for believing in Africa and are committed to working with him to make this very important regional project a reality”.
The proposed East African refinery is not an isolated project but a key part of the Dangote Group’s ambitious “Vision 2030” plan to become a $100 billion revenue enterprise. The group is already in the process of expanding its Nigerian refinery further, aiming to more than double its capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day by 2028. Simultaneously, Dangote is aggressively expanding into high-value petrochemicals and plans to establish about 20 fertilizer blending plants across Africa by 2028 to meet the continent’s needs. This integrated strategy – controlling the entire value chain from extraction and refining to downstream manufacturing – is designed to maximize value capture and reduce Africa’s reliance on the global commodity cycle.
Dangote also issued a powerful call for African financial institutions to back the continent’s own industries, rather than relying on increasingly unreliable foreign aid or capital. He noted that Africa has its own billionaire entrepreneurs and large financial institutions that are now hungry for substantial investment opportunities. “It’s going to deepen the market, and we are saying that all Africans should invest and we will be paying dividends in dollars,” he said, while also preparing to list up to 10% of his Nigerian refinery on multiple African stock exchanges in an unprecedented pan-African IPO. “What we need, first of all, is consistency in government policies… and also the support of governments,” he explained. Crucially, while the mega-refinery project in Tanga requires political will from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, construction is already moving forward on Dangote’s expanded projects in Nigeria. “We have already started piling” at the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos, where the 1.4 million barrel-per-day expansion is advancing toward becoming the world’s largest single-site refinery and a global benchmark for African industrial ambition.
📩 Stone Reporters News | 🌍 stonereportersnews.com
✉️ info@stonereportersnews.com | 📘 Facebook: Stone Reporters News | 🐦 X (Twitter): @StoneReportNew | 📸 Instagram: @stonereportersnews
Add comment
Comments