Aliko Dangote is looking to expand his industrial footprint in East Africa with the proposed Lamu refinery project expected to strengthen the region’s petroleum supply and open up new investment opportunities. I had a chat with him earlier on
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What Aliko Dangote said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Aliko Dangote defended the Lamu Refinery project against resident concerns about compensation, saying the government had already paid compensation for the land. He emphasized the project's economic impact, citing 60,000 jobs at the site and additional indirect economic activity. Dangote said the refinery would produce 1,000 megawatts of power, with 500 megawatts sold to the government, and supply polypropylene and base oil to East Africa. He estimated the factory's revenue at $30 billion, which he said would significantly boost Kenya's GDP. Responding to climate activists, he argued that recycling makes the project environmentally safe, and criticized activists for ignoring coal use in the UK and Germany. He said crude would come from East African producers first, then from the Middle East, acknowledging current capacity is insufficient but may grow. He justified oil's future by pointing to products derived from crude and companies like Adnoc expanding.
Key takeaways
Dangote said the Lamu Refinery will create 60,000 jobs at the site.
The refinery will generate 1,000 megawatts of power, with 500 megawatts sold to the government.
The factory's revenue is projected at $30 billion, boosting Kenya's GDP.
Dangote insisted all processes are 100% recycled, with no discharge into the sea.
Crude will be sourced from East African producers first, then the Middle East.
His industrial footprint in East Africa, with the proposed Lamu Refinery project expected to strengthen the region's petroleum supply and open up new investment opportunities. I had a chat with him earlier today and this is what he had to say.
Mr. Dangote, thank you for joining us. My name is Dibala from TV 47.
Right, let's just begin with the reservations that have been raised by the residents of Lamu concerning transparency, compensation, and also community participation. What is your direct answer to these queries?
Well, my direct answer is first of all, the issue of compensation had actually already been done by the government, you know, and there is quite a massive land there. You know, the area that we are talking about are owned. It's only that compensation has been paid anyway. So, it's not that compensation has not been paid. That's number one. Number two, the amount of jobs and opportunities that we are bringing to Lamu is enormous. It's not only the growth of Lamu's economy, it's East African economy. You are talking about 60,000 people that are going to work from that same site. So, the economic activities of people who are not even directly people who are now selling food, people who are now opening shops. Because you know, you'll now have people who will have disposable income. The catering alone of feeding 60,000 people per day is enormous. People will learn how to be doing specialty welding. People will now learn how to do erection. People will now learn how to do erection of equipment. They will now know how to do welding. So, there's a lot of different disciplines that people are going to learn. But, the refinery is only a base.
We have other industries that are going to end up coming. Because do they have power today in Lamu? They have, but is it enough? No. So, Lamu's refinery is going to come up with a thousand megawatts of power. A thousand megawatts of power is almost 20% of the existing power in Kenya. Okay, so of which 500 megawatts will be sold onto the government. We are going to supply all the needs of the plastic industries, which is polypropylene, not only of Kenya or some of the few African neighboring countries in East Africa. We are going to also do base oil, which is more than the demand of East Africa. So, there are quite a lot of industry we alone we are doing. But, then there are other industries that other people now will realize that look, it is happening in Lamu. We want to take our own factory to Lamu because there will be enough power. So, the economic activities is huge. You will be surprised this thing will add couple of numbers to the GDP growth of Kenya. You are talking about a factory with 30 billion dollars of revenue. So, 30 billion dollars of revenue, you can go and do the numbers. What is the foreign reserve of Kenya. And this is bringing 30 billion. So, even when you take the GDP of Kenya, when you add 30 billion, I think it's a lot in terms of number.
Yeah, it's a consequential figure. But let's just also get the flip side of it because we have the climate activists also raising special umbrage with the fact that this is going to affect also the ecological sensitivity of the coastline area. I wonder what is your answer to this?
7 more exchanges in this transcript
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Dangote, A. (2026, September 29). Dangote's East Africa's Plans by Aliko Dangote | TV47 Prime with Debarl Inea [Interview transcript]. TV47 Kenya. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2949366/
MLA
Aliko Dangote. "Dangote's East Africa's Plans by Aliko Dangote | TV47 Prime with Debarl Inea." TV47 Kenya, 29 Sep. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2949366/.
BibTeX
@misc{dangote2026_2949366,
author = {Aliko Dangote},
title = {Dangote's East Africa's Plans by Aliko Dangote | TV47 Prime with Debarl Inea},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, TV47 Kenya. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {sep},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2949366/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
