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Aliko Dangote is not done building. Africa's richest person revealed fresh expansion plans for his Lekki-based petroleum refinery at the 37th Enugu International Trade Fair this week, setting a new target of 1.4 million barrels per day, more than double the facility's current capacity of 650,000 barrels per day.
The announcement, delivered by Olatunbosun Jinadu, the regional director for South East at Dangote Cement Plc, who represented the billionaire at the event, confirmed what industry watchers had been expecting after months of signals from the group. Jinadu disclosed the group has concluded plans to expand its petroleum refinery capacity from 650,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day, a move expected to significantly increase output and improve efficiency.
The expansion, if completed on schedule, would vault the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals past India's Jamnagar facility to become the world's largest single-site refinery complex. The expansion is currently expected to be completed within three years.
Dangote has already been moving fast to back those ambitions with hard contracts. In February, the group signed a $400 million equipment deal with China's Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group to speed up the expansion, with the additional equipment expected to support major projects across refining, petrochemicals, agriculture and infrastructure. Separately, the group awarded a $350 million contract to Engineers India Limited to manage engineering, procurement, construction management and commissioning work for the buildout.
The scale of the ambition extends well beyond crude oil. The expansion program will see polypropylene production increase from 900,000 metric tonnes per annum to 2.4 million metric tonnes per annum. Urea production in Nigeria will triple to nine million tons per year, alongside an existing three million-ton plant in Ethiopia, positioning the conglomerate as the world's largest urea producer. Jinadu also noted plans to scale fertilizer plant capacity to 12 million metric tonnes, underscoring the group's intent to diversify industrial output beyond fuel.
The refinery now supplies 62% of Nigeria's premium motor fuel, overtaking fuel importers for the first time ever, after the giant plant reached full operational capacity at 650,000 bpd. That milestone alone marked a turning point in Nigeria's downstream sector after decades of dependence on imported refined products. The expansion pushes that logic further, toward a scenario where Nigeria becomes a net exporter of petroleum products to neighboring countries still reliant on European suppliers.
Dangote has said the refinery will save Nigeria up to $10 billion annually in import costs, money that can be channelled into other critical sectors. Over 85% of the workforce will be Nigerian, with major investment in skills and technology transfer. The group also plans to list 10% of refinery shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange within a year, offering ordinary Nigerians a stake in what has become the continent's most consequential industrial project.
All of it fits into a broader Dangote Group vision that Jinadu articulated plainly in Enugu. The group described the investments as a strategic move toward its ambition of building a $100 billion enterprise by 2030, strengthening its industrial footprint across Africa. Whether the timeline holds will depend on execution, financing and the volatile dynamics of global energy markets. But at 1.4 million barrels a day, the ambition is unmistakably clear.
