African heads of state break ground for $16B oil refinery project

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Five African heads of state led a ground breaking ceremony Wednesday on a $16-billion oil refinery project in East Africa, following calls for the continent to boost its self-sufficiency in processing raw materials into finished products.

Kenya’s President William Ruto hosted his counterparts from Uganda, Ethiopia, Togo, Benin as well as Nigeria's former President Olusegun Obasanjo, shoveling soil at the site to symbolically show construction of the refinery has started.

When work is completed in 40 months, the refinery is expected to process 700,000 barrels of oil per day.

The project, in the coastal town of Lamu, will be undertaken by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, who insisted that “Africa must industrialize Africa." He said Wednesday the continent cannot be “exporting what it has and importing what it needs.”

The refinery will rely on oil from neighboring countries such as Uganda, which plans to export oil through Tanzania, and South Sudan, which exports oil via Sudan.

Dangote said East African countries have a sufficient market for the oil that will be refined locally. The countries in the region consume much more than the 700,000 barrels per day that will be refined, he said.

The refinery was initially planned to be built in Tanzania’s coastal town of Tanga, but Dangote said it was later determined that Lamu had deeper waters, solid ground capable of supporting the heavy equipment, and deep-sea access.

Other East African countries – Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, and Tanzania – sent heads of delegation to represent their heads of state at the ceremony.