Aliko Dangote's 17-billion dollar East African refinery advances as Ruto vows to build this year despite oil cartels

Aliko Dangote's plan for a second giant refinery just got a public push from a head of state. Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Nairobi on Thursday, Kenyan President William Ruto confirmed that construction of an East African oil refinery linked to Africa's richest man will begin this year. "We have agreed that this year we are going to have a refinery here," he said.

The president doubled down a day later, vowing on Friday that Kenya would proceed despite what he called resistance from oil cartels. His message framed the project as a fight worth having, and put Dangote's East African ambitions at the center of Kenya's energy agenda.

The proposed refinery would process about 650,000 barrels of crude a day, matching Dangote's landmark Lekki plant near Lagos. Estimates put the cost between $15 billion and $17 billion, ranking it among the largest single energy investments the continent has seen.

Dangote has made his preference clear. In a Financial Times interview earlier this month, he said he favors Mombasa, citing the Kenyan port's deeper water and larger cargo capacity, both critical for a facility that must receive very large crude carriers daily. He also pointed to Kenya's bigger fuel market, noting simply that "Kenyans consume more."

Tanzania is not conceding. President Samia Suluhu Hassan has courted Dangote in Dar es Salaam, pushing Tanga as the better site and leaning on the East African Crude Oil Pipeline to argue the port can anchor a regional refining hub. The rivalry has already strained relations, with Suluhu publicly signaling she was not consulted before Ruto went public.

The strategic logic mirrors Dangote's Nigerian playbook. East Africa still imports most of its refined fuel despite rising regional crude output, including discoveries in Kenya's Turkana region. A local refinery would keep more value on the continent, cut import bills and reduce exposure to volatile global fuel markets.

His Lekki refinery gives the pitch credibility. That plant now runs near full capacity, has turned Nigeria into a net petrol exporter and ships products as far as Europe and the United States. Therefore, when Dangote talks about replicating the model abroad, governments listen and compete.

Plenty still has to fall into place. The Dangote team is running feasibility studies, no site has been locked in and no groundbreaking date is set. Yet with Ruto now staking political capital on the plant, the East African race shows how a single industrialist can reshape energy strategy across borders.