Africa’s richest man has chosen Mombasa over a multilateral energy alliance, exposing the fragility of regional cooperation — and raising uncomfortable questions about who really shapes the continent’s economic destiny.
When Aliko Dangote, Africa’s wealthiest man, looks at East Africa’s energy map, he does not see borders or diplomatic protocols — he sees a $17 billion opportunity. His decision to favour Kenya’s Mombasa as the site for a proposed 650,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery has upended months of regional diplomacy, shattered the illusion of a pan-African energy alliance, and placed a single uncomfortable truth on the table: private capital moves faster than political goodwill.
