Kenyan President William Ruto has officially launched the construction of a $16-billion oil refinery project with a designed capacity of processing up to 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
“Today we turn a proposal into an industry. We transform a long-held ambition into real opportunity for Kenya, for East Africa and for Africa,” Ruto said while launching the petrochemical facility in Lamu County on Wednesday.
The facility, which came true through a strategic partnership between the Kenyan government and Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote, will also co-generate up to 1,000 megawatts of electricity to support domestic and regional energy needs.
According to Ruto, the project will foster the country’s energy security and rapid industrialization as well as broader East African integration.
In 2024, the African Export-Import Bank noted that Africa produced approximately 6.8 million barrels of crude oil per day, while consuming approximately 4.5 million barrels of refined petroleum products a day.
Ruto emphasized that the mega-project reflects growing investor confidence, with Kenya now attracting a record 3.2 billion dollars in foreign direct investment, the highest in the nation’s history.
He said the facility will generate up to 60,000 direct and indirect jobs, with peak construction monthly wages estimated at 7.7 million dollars.
Dangote, on his part, emphasized that the project will help break Africa’s historical economic pattern of exporting raw commodities while importing high-value finished products.
He described the 700,000-barrel-per-day facility as an initial step in a broader, long-term regional investment strategy.
MG/APA