Regional leaders arrived in Kenya’s Mokowe, Lamu County Wednesday and flagged off construction of an ambitious East African Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
The refinery positioned as a game changer will process daily 700,000 barrels of petroleum sourced from Kenya’s Turkana oilfields. More supplies will come from other parts of Africa.
Aliko Dangote told guests at the refinery site, “This project started as a joke. President William Ruto approached me in April. We met together with President Museveni and conceptualised a plan to set up a refinery in Tanga, then later settled on Lamu.”
“I must congratulate you Dr. William Ruto because I don’t know the magic you’re using on me,” Aliko Dangote.
Details indicate that the refinery is valued at U$16 billion and construction will be completed by 2030.
“By 2030, the majority of African countries will be self-sufficient. It does not matter where it is refined, but it should be in the African continent, on the soil of Africa,” Aliko Dangote told journalists in Nairobi Wednesday shortly before heading to Lamu.
Dangote said that the ambitious refinery project is part of efforts to stop African continent exporting raw materials and start selling finished products.
Dangote disclosed plans to invest an additional U$50 billion across Africa after committing more than U$25 billion to existing businesses.
He said the next phase of the Group’s expansion would combine massive industrial investment with a deliberate opening of its businesses to African ownership through the capital markets.
“We have already invested more than U$25 billion, but right now, we’re going ahead to invest an additional U$50 billion,” Dangote said.
“We want to create and generate wealth for Africans, to make sure that we defend our markets. And the only way to defend the market is not to do baby steps. It’s better we do big scale,” Dangote added.
Lamu project grew out of discussions among African policymakers, financiers and business leaders on how to deploy the continent’s natural resources for industrialisation rather than extraction.
Those discussions identified petroleum refining as one of the strategic opportunities for East Africa and led to engagement with Dangote, President William Ruto, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and other regional leaders.
Presidents Kaguta Museveni of Uganda, Wadagni Romuald of Benin and Jean-Lucien Savi de Tové of Togo, and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali of Ethiopia are in Lamu for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Dangote East Africa Refinery.
