Construction of the proposed Lamu oil refinery in Kenya is expected to begin in October 2026, according to Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote.
Dangote said preparations for the project are at an advanced stage, with the ground-breaking ceremony expected to take place by October.
He disclosed this in an interview with the BBC, saying the refinery is intended to strengthen energy supply in Kenya and other African countries.
“By October this year, we will be groundbreaking. Once we break the ground, we will begin the construction,” Dangote said.
The planned facility is expected to have a crude oil processing capacity of 700,000 barrels per day, making it one of the largest proposed refineries in Africa.
Dangote said the refinery would serve markets beyond Kenya, with petroleum products expected to be supplied to other countries across East Africa and potentially Egypt.
“The refinery will not only be for Kenya but East Africa as a whole,” he said.
The estimated cost of the project has also been reduced from an earlier projection of $17 billion to about $16 billion, which is approximately KSh2 trillion.
According to Dangote, the lower cost is partly due to experience gained from building his company’s refinery in Nigeria. He said lessons from the Nigerian project would help the Kenyan refinery to be completed faster and reduce financing costs.
The Lamu refinery is expected to take less than four years to complete once construction begins.
Dangote said the project would be financed through a combination of equity and debt, with 30 per cent of the funding coming from equity and the remaining 70 per cent from debt.
When completed, the refinery is expected to become one of Kenya’s largest private-sector investments and create thousands of jobs in construction, engineering, logistics, manufacturing and other sectors.
