Overview
- Dangote plans to start construction of a 700,000 barrels‑per‑day refinery at Lamu with a groundbreaking scheduled for Wednesday and a three‑year, $15–16 billion build timeline.
- Engineers India Limited has been formally hired on a $450 million project management and engineering services contract to lead design and construction oversight.
- Dangote is pursuing a hybrid financing plan that leans on internal cash, an ongoing IPO and bond sales while holding talks with multilateral financiers for additional funding.
- Feedstock remains unresolved because Uganda has not committed oil to Lamu, which raises the prospect of relying on seaborne crude imports and requires expanded storage and port readiness.
- The project faces direct regional competition from a Vitol‑backed $20 billion Tanzania–Uganda energy complex and has won strong public backing from Kenya’s president alongside offers for East African states to take equity stakes, a model Dangote used when building its Lagos refinery.