Dangote Group, the empire of Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, has offered a 30 per cent holding in its proposed 700,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery to nations in East Africa, the region where the mega crude-processing plant is to be located, Bloomberg reported Friday.
Kenya, where the new refinery will be sited at the southeastern coastal town of Lamu, will take a 10 per cent stake estimated at around half a trillion dollars, David Ndii, a top economic adviser of President Ruto, told Bloomberg.
“The total for the region is about $1.5 billion. I don’t actually see a challenge in doing that, and if some of them are not off-taking we will backstop,” Mr Ndii was quoted as saying at a capital market conference in Nairobi on Thursday.
Ethiopia and Rwanda are said to have indicated willingness to participate.
Mr Dangote is turning to business-friendly Kenya and other promising markets in East Africa to expand his multi-billion dollar empire after facing an avalanche of resistance from his home country Nigeria in bringing a refinery of similar capacity to completion.
The Nigerian refinery, situated in the outskirts of Lagos and initially projected to be completed in 2016, did not see the light of the day until eight years after, held back by logistic delay, infrastructure constraints and COVID-19 lockdowns.
The magnate, who has built his fortune around cement, sugar and a couple of fast-moving consumer products, accused international oil companies of sabotaging efforts at getting the refinery running seamlessly in its early days.
He claimed that the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, which serves as the top watchdog for the midstream and downstream segments of the oil industry, issued new licences to some players to import “dirty fuel” as part of a broader…
Source link
Read Full Article by Ronald Adamolekun at www.premiumtimesng.com
Source link
