Nigerian billionaire business tycoon Aliko Dangote last week confirmed the final location of his new oil refinery in East Africa: Lamu Island off the Kenyan coast.
The facility is set to change not only Kenya but the entire region, with a projected refinery output of 700,000 barrels per day. Once operational, the facility is expected to become Africa's second-largest refinery.
Oge Onubogu, a director and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, told DW that "people on the ground [think] it's wonderful that this investment is coming into Kenya; just the potential about the jobs that could be created, not only for local Kenyan economies but more broadly for the region."
"It's a massive project, but one that is needed in many ways on the continent and in the East Africa region," she said.Tanzania and Kenya competed for the refinery project for months before Dangote chose Lamu IslandImage: Christophe Petit Tesson/picture alliance/dpa
Dangote Industries Limited has not yet announced the projected cost of the ambitious undertaking. However, according to reports on Bloomberg, building the proposed refinery could run up a bill of up to $17 billion (€15 billion), which would make it one of the largest privately funded industrial projects in the region to date.
