1. Aliko Dangote has unveiled plans to build Africa’s largest detergent feedstock plant within the Dangote Refinery complex.
2. The new facility will produce 400,000 tonnes of Linear Alkyl Benzene annually, enough to meet the continent’s entire demand.
3. The project is expected to be completed in 30 months and highlights the refinery’s evolution into a broader industrial hub.
4. This move will reduce Africa’s reliance on imported detergent raw materials and deepen Nigeria’s petrochemical footprint.

The project will produce Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB), a chemical used to make the surfactants, the active cleaning agents in soaps and detergents. It is not a consumer detergent, but the raw material that detergent manufacturers rely on.

The plant is expected to be completed within 30 months and produce 400,000 tonnes annually, far exceeding Africa’s current capacity.

Dangote made the announcement on Saturday during a tour of the refinery with Bayo Ojulari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

“And that raw material for detergent will be sufficient for the entire African continent. It’s 400,000 tonnes, which we don’t have.The only two are one in Algeria, 100,000 tonnes, and Egypt, 50,000.But we are going 400,000. And we will deliver all this in the next 30 months,” Dangote said.

A refinery evolving into an industrial hub

The $20 billion Dangote Refinery, Africa’s largest, is now moving steadily toward full-capacity fuel production. With refining stabilizing, Dangote is transforming the complex into a multi-product industrial zone, hosting petrochemical and other manufacturing projects.

“They [NNPC] too will partner with us here because here is not a refinery. It’s an industrial hub. And that’s why we are doing a Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) plant, which is a raw material for detergents,” Dangote added.

Africa currently depends heavily on imports of LAB, with only two existing plants on the continent, Algeria (100,000 tonnes) and Egypt (50,000 tonnes). Dangote’s facility could meet the continent’s entire demand, reduce import dependence, and support local detergent manufacturing.

The LAB project also deepens the conglomerate’s broader petrochemical footprint, complementing its operations in fertiliser, cement, oil refining, agriculture, and industrial manufacturing. (BI News)

•PHOTO: Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Group. [Photo by Noushad Thekkayil/NurPhoto via Getty Images]