Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man and owner of Africa’s largest oil refinery, plans to more than double the capacity of his refinery in Lagos, Nigeria. With little known details yet, the plan states that the 650,000 barrels per day refinery will increase its capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day.

The Dangote Refinery, located in Lagos, is already Africa’s largest and one of the biggest in the world, currently producing 650,000 barrels per day.

It now plans to expand it to 1.4 million barrels per day, which would make it the largest single-site refinery in the world, overtaking India’s Jamnagar refinery.

He said the expansion will be financed through external funding, though details on the timeline or financing sources have not yet been made public.

For a massive industrial project like the Dangote Refinery expansion, “external funding” usually means money coming from outside the company itself, rather than Dangote Group’s internal reserves. It can take several forms, depending on the scale, risk, and investor appetite.

This could also mean multiple donors, including money coming from banks, investors, development institutions, or capital markets, rather than the billionaire’s own reserves.

Nigeria is one of Africa’s biggest oil producers, but it still imports most of its refined fuel because government-run refineries have been poorly maintained and mostly non-functional. The Dangote Refinery, which began production in January 2024, is meant to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on fuel imports and supply other African countries.

Expanding the refinery would help meet growing energy demands both across Africa and internationally, strengthening Nigeria’s role in the global energy market.

Dangote said the expansion shows “confidence in Nigeria and in Africa’s capacity to shape its own energy future.”

Analysts, such as those from SBM Intelligence, welcome the move but note that there’s little public detail yet about how and when this expansion will happen. The current refinery cost about $19 billion and took nearly a decade to build, so this new phase could also take years to complete.