Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has said the planned refinery and industrial complex in Lamu will generate electricity, with half the power expected to be sold to the Kenyan government.
Speaking during a tour of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Nigeria, Dangote said the Lamu project will have a power plant capable of generating about 1,000 megawatts, meaning 500 megawatts could be supplied to the government.
“We are going to produce about 1,000 megawatts in Lamu, and we’ll have 500 megawatts to sell to the government of Kenya,” Dangote said.
He described the electricity as part of the refinery investment and an entry point for further business in the country.
“What this investment will do to Kenya’s economy is not only the refinery. The refinery is like actually the gate. Once you open up, you have the refinery, you’d be shocked at how many people will now come and, you know, invest in Kenya,” Dangote said.
The billionaire said the Lamu development will include several facilities that will expand the scale of the investment beyond refining.
He said the power plant in Lamu will be significantly larger than the one at the existing Dangote refinery in Nigeria.
Dangote also outlined some of the equipment that will be installed at the Kenyan facility, saying some of the units will be heavier than those at the Nigerian refinery.
“We will have some of the equipment that we’ll have here, maybe like the RFCCs will be much heavier, the one of Lamu,” he said.
The Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) converts heavier petroleum fractions into more valuable products.
Dangote said the Lamu refinery will also have a coker, which processes heavier crude oil residues.
He also mentioned a Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU), which separates heavier crude oil fractions under reduced pressure.
He said the differences between the Nigerian and Kenyan facilities are linked to the type of crude oil the Lamu refinery will process.
“So here I will give you a sense of an idea of what we’re going to have in Kenya,” he said.
President William Ruto, who was present during the visit, said the government is 100% behind the project.
He also told Dangote that Kenya is working on a route from the Turkana oil fields to Lamu, to move crude from the country’s own reserves to the refinery gate.
The refinery is designed for 700,000 barrels a day, making it the largest in East Africa and the second largest on the continent after the Lagos plant.
The project is being developed with Dangote’s involvement and support from the Africa Finance Corporation, with an estimated investment of Ksh1.94 trillion to Ksh2.20 trillion.
It is expected to supply Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and to create around 60,000 jobs. Groundbreaking is on Wednesday, September 30.
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