Billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote has pledged to replicate his 650,000-barrel-per-day Nigerian refinery in East Africa if regional governments support the initiative.
Dangote made the commitment on Thursday at an infrastructure financing conference in Nairobi, where he appeared alongside Kenyan President William Ruto.
“My commitment today here is that if we agree with the three or four governments here about the refinery, we will lead and we'll make sure that refinery is built within the next four or five years,” Dangote said.
President Ruto said East African countries are discussing a joint refinery to be located at Tanzania’s Tanga port. The facility would process crude from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda.
“We are discussing that we are going to have a joint refinery in Tanga to benefit all of us,” Ruto said.
East Africa currently imports all of its refined petroleum products, mainly from the Middle East, leaving the region exposed to supply shocks and price surges amid global conflicts.
The proposed refinery would be linked by pipeline to Kenya’s Mombasa port and sited at Tanga, which is also the endpoint of a 1,443 km pipeline from Uganda’s oil fields.
Dangote’s Lagos refinery, the continent’s largest, has reached full capacity and helped Nigeria achieve fuel self-sufficiency. The East Africa project forms part of a $40-billion expansion drive that includes doubling capacity at the Nigerian plant.
The billionaire added that he plans to establish about 20 fertilizer blending plants across Africa by 2028.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com