Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, in a recent interview with the BBC, disclosed that his proposed refinery in Kenya might cost substantially less than the $17 billion originally predicted, as the tycoon hopes to use lessons learned from the construction of his gigantic Lagos refinery to speed up the new project.
In the interview, Dangote stated that the Kenyan refinery will now require an investment of $15.5 billion to $16 billion.
Dangote hopes to finish the Kenyan project in less than four years, as opposed to the Dangote Refinery in Lagos, which took far longer to develop.
During the interview, when he was asked how much the refinery would cost, the Nigerian billionaire stated: “We told you it was going to cost $17 billion, but it’s going to cost less than that; we are looking at $15.5 and $16 billion.”
“Because this one will be faster, so financing cost will be less, and then also, we are wiser as a company than when we built this (the Dangote Refinery in Lagos), because we were just learning when we built the one here, so in terms of timing, we will be able to build in less than 4 years,” he told the BBC.
