Uganda has launched a drive to position Hoima as East Africa’s petrochemical manufacturing centre, opening the Kabalega Industrial Park (KIP) to investors ahead of first oil production.

Anchored on the country’s planned 60,000-barrels-per-day refinery, the park is expected to host industries that convert by-products into value-added products, contributing an estimated $4.9 billion annually to GDP and creating thousands of jobs. As the country nears commercial oil production, the wholly state-owned Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) says the park, located approximately 50 kilometres west of Hoima City near Lake Albert, will host 221 factories.

Investors are expected to take up land offered within the 29.57-square-kilometre complex. The industrial park is relying on key oil infrastructure, including the crude export hub, refinery, pump station, oil logistics-dedicated international airport, and the termination point for feeder pipelines from the upstream Tilenga and Kingfisher developments.

According to official documents, KIP will improve the balance of payments by $840 million annually, deliver a net fiscal impact of $1.2 billion a year, and spur national capital formation of up to $11.9 billion annually. KIP aims to move ahead and establish itself as the region’s leading petrochemical manufacturing hub. It could raise the profile of the region in oil business.

This week, Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote announced he had chosen Lamu in Kenya as site where he will build a refinery identical to the 700,000-bpd facility in Lekki, Nigeria. The Dangote refinery would also create a petrochemical ecosystem that could eventually compete with UNOC’s hub in Uganda’s oil city. As a region with limited oil and gas production, East Africa lacks a major petrochemical industry.

From the 1960s until 2013, Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd operated the Mombasa refinery, processing imported crude into transportation fuels.

In Tanzania, meanwhile, fertiliser manufacturers have sought to utilise the country’s offshore natural gas resources to produce ammonia and urea fertilisers.

The region’s push towards an industrial hub based on oil-refining by-products now appears set to gain momentum through KIP. Local and international investors are expected to begin submitting applications for land to establish fertiliser plants, plastics and polymer manufacturing facilities, and other petrochemical industries within the park’s heavy industrial zone, which will also host the $4 billion refinery.

The complex will also accommodate paint and coating plants, agro-processing factories, biofuel facilities, textile manufacturers and warehousing operations. Collectively, the industrial park is expected to employ 35,000 people, UNOC Chief Executive Proscovia Nabbanja said on July 7, 2026, while launching the KIP investor portal. “The purpose is to create value for generations, and 10 investors have already shown us this is possible,” said Nabbanja, referring to the initial investors.

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