Oil tycoon Aliko Dangote said on Tuesday that Africa would largely supply its own refined fuel needs by 2030 as he prepared to launch a $16 billion refinery on the Kenyan coast.
Dangote will break ground on the East African oil refinery, with a planned capacity of 700,000 barrels per day, on Wednesday. It is expected to take around 30 months to build.
Speaking to reporters in Nairobi, Africa’s richest man said he saw it as part of efforts to stop the continent exporting raw materials and start selling finished products.
“By 2030, the majority of African countries will be self-sufficient. It does not matter where it is refined, but it should be in the African continent, on the soil of Africa,” he said in response to a question from AFP on when Africa would no longer need to import fuel from elsewhere.
He dismissed concerns about the Kenyan project, which is being built at Lamu on the picturesque Indian Ocean coast, and already faces a land rights court case, and opposition from Greenpeace and others over its environmental impact.
“There’s actually no problem with these sort of cases,” Dangote said. “There are people who don’t want the development of Africa.”
There have been questions about where the new refinery will source the crude oil to refine, given that east African countries are only just starting to find and exploit significant reserves.
Dangote said it would source crude from multiple places, including the Middle East, the United States, and others — and would be ready as countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique start producing more.
“Are we going to wait until (Africa has) one quarter of the world’s population before we start thinking of what to do? We have to start addressing that issue today,” he said, highlighting US President Donald Trump’s threats to stop exporting diesel.
Credit: channelstv.com
