Five African heads of state inaugurated on Wednesday a $16-billion oil refinery project in East Africa, following calls for the continent to boost its self-sufficiency in processing raw materials into finished products.
When construction is completed in the coastal town of Lamu in 40 months, the refinery is expected to process 700,000 barrels of oil per day.
Kenya’s President William Ruto and his counterparts from Uganda, Ethiopia, Togo, Benin and Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo led a ground breaking ceremony at the site, shoveling soil to show that work on the refinery has started.
Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, whose company, Dangote Group, will handle the refinery’s construction and has stakes in the project, said Wednesday “Africa must industrialize Africa,” adding that the continent cannot be “exporting what it has and importing what it needs.”
The refinery will rely on oil from neighboring countries. However, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni said his country had planned to build its own “small refinery” and those plans would continue. The region needs “more than one or two refineries,” he said.
“For Ugandan crude, I didn’t want to export any crude, I wanted to refine it locally,” he said.
Dangote said East African countries have a sufficient market for the oil that will be refined locally. The countries in the region consume much more than the 700,000 barrels per day that will be refined, he said.
The refinery was initially planned to be built in Tanzania’s coastal town of Tanga, but Dangote said it was later determined that Lamu had deeper waters, solid ground capable of supporting the heavy equipment, and deep-sea access.
Other East African countries – Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, and Tanzania – sent heads of delegation to represent their heads of state at the ceremony.
The refinery is already facing local obstacles. Officials are waiting for a lawsuit filed by residents claiming ownership of the land to be resolved. Dozens of protesters took to the streets of Lamu on Tuesday demanding more compensation.
Environmental activists also say the project threatens the marine ecosystem at the coast.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
