Everybody here. I think this project started like actually like a joke because His Excellency President Ruto sent someone to come and meet me sometime in April with an interest just to be buying fertilizer from us. And Somalia ended up convincing me to come and attend his conference. And it was that time that both myself, him and our own father, President Museveni, we had a small meeting in the holding room and that is when we said, okay fine, we should go to Tanga and put up a refinery. But then after doing some research and calls, we ended up with Lamu.
To be honest, before me ending, I've never really heard of any name called Lamu. So this is really my first time and this is also the fastest, or no, second fastest project we have actually launched after the fertilizer in Ethiopia.
So Your Excellency President Ruto, I must really congratulate you. I don't know really what magic you use on me, but you can see that we already have more than 110 equipments and we have 400 additional equipments that will arrive in the next 60 days.
Your Excellency Dr. William Samoei Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya and our gracious host, Your Excellency, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of Uganda, who is also our elder statesman of the continent. Your Excellency, my brother, but from a different mother, Your Excellency Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
I think most times I always dream of him. The great jobs that he's doing in Ethiopia, I pray we will have a lot of leaders like you. Your Excellency, one of the most effective presidents of West Africa from the West African region, President Patrice Talon, President of the Republic of Benin.
Your Excellency, the Deputy President of Kenya, the representative of the senior presidential special envoy representing the President of Southern Sudan, the Ambassador of Somalia to Kenya representing the President of Somalia, the Minister of Trade, Mr. Kajwang, and Industry representing the President of Rwanda, representatives of the Presidents of Tanzania, Benin, and also we have the representative of the Togo President here with us.
The Governor of Ondo State, he's also here with us. We have our former senator, two-time minister, who is the Honorable Minister of State for Petroleum of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, representing His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, who just returned last night from vacation, that's why he was not able to be here.
Our dear father, the father of Africa, President Obasanjo GCFR. President Obasanjo is an old man, but you have to believe me, his entire spirit is that of a 50-year-old.
By the way, anytime we see each other, he always calls me his boss. Why he calls me his boss, which is not true, but of course because he was actually my site manager when I was building 5 million tons of cement in Nigeria in 2004, when every single government official had actually told him that, look, don't believe Aliko, it will not happen. Nobody has ever built that kind of 5 million tons in Africa. But Obasanjo made sure not only that we built it, we had to commission it on the 12th of May. That is just a few days before he left office.
The Kabiyesi of Edo is our most highly respected traditional ruler from Nigeria. Maybe you should stand for recognition because people don't know you.
The president without a country, President and Chairman of Afreximbank, Dr. Benedict Oramah. [applause] I think the most effective bank in the continent of Africa is Afreximbank.
The President and Chief Executive Officer of Africa Finance Corporation, Mr. Samaila Zubairu, the Managing Director of Access Bank, Mr. Roosevelt Ogbonna. I will just be calling the titles so that to save time. The Managing Director, Chief Executive of First Bank, the Managing Director of GTBank, the representatives of UBA, Zenith Bank, President and all other banks and our financiers and TDV Bank of Eastern Africa.
And of course my two group vice presidents, my executive director, Mariya Aliko Dangote, who is her husband, and all the other Dangote Group. There are so many people who are so important to us that I will not be able to mention them because of time. But you are all very, very welcome because you are very special to us. You have left your work to be here with us.
So distinguished ministers and senior officials of the government of Kenya, Nigeria and other African nations represented here. The Governor of course of Lamu County, and I want to thank you for your speech and you are right. People should not come and deprive you from what President Ruto brought down here. $16 billion of investment is not a joke. But definitely I can assure you we've seen it happen where we built the other refinery where land alone has jumped up by over 1,000%. I want to advise that be careful in releasing your lands because they are the greatest assets that you have.
Of course, our technology company that sold the technology of building this refinery is UOP, and I'm sure the MD, he's here, Mr. Dr. Rajesh, can you stand up so you can be recognized. We bought the technology from him. So for every barrel we process, he collects a commission. No, I'm serious.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, today Africa has actually gathered here in Lamu. We have come from different countries representing different governments, institutions and communities. But we are united by one conviction: Africa must industrialize Africa. The esteemed presence of our president and our leaders here today gives this occasion a significance far greater than the groundbreaking of another industrial project. This is Africa coming together to build Africa.
Today, we are not simply breaking ground for a refinery. We are breaking ground for a new chapter in Africa's industrial journey to a brighter future. We are standing here in Mokowe on the beautiful coast of Kenya to bear witness to a project born from collaboration by African governments, financed by African institutions and promoting African enterprise.
For too long, our continent has actually been rich in resources but poor in value creation and addition. We have exported crude oil and imported refined products. We have exported minerals and imported manufactured goods. We have exported agricultural commodities and imported processed foods. I have been a firm believer and advocate that such practice only leads to us exporting our jobs and opportunities that should remain on the continent and lead us into importing poverty into our nations.
Africa cannot build lasting prosperity by exporting what it has and importing what it needs. We must produce more of what we consume. We must process more of what we produce. We must create more value here at home in Africa. That is why we are here today.
Years ago when we decided to build a refinery in Nigeria, many people told us it was impossible. The project was too big. The financing was too difficult. The engineering was too complex. The infrastructure did not arise. As a matter of fact, there was a minister of energy at that time of Saudi Arabia, Dr. when he called me to come and visit him and I went there during the fasting and he said that, well Aliko, do you realize that refineries are only built by major, I mean, multinationals or sovereign governments? I learned that you want to build a refinery. I said yes, Your Excellency. Well, let me advise you. I said no, Excellency, I don't want your advice because I've started already.
So really when you look at it, some doubted us, some dismissed us, some even mocked the scale of our ambition because we wanted to build 50% more than any line that has actually been built on this earth. But we kept building. They saw obstacles. We saw possibility. They saw risk. We saw opportunity. They predicted failure. We delivered history.
Today, Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos stands tall as evidence of what Africans can accomplish when ambition is marked by courage, capital, technology and disciplined execution. And in the words of His Excellency President Ruto when he visited us last week, what he said, somebody asked him, so Mr. President, what did you see here? He said, well, I don't know how to describe it, but this is recklessness which we entrepreneurs describe as calculated risk.
So Your Excellency, I want to really thank you from the bottom of my heart for your visit. I want you to also extend my great appreciation to Her Excellency the First Lady, your dear wife, who we managed that day to convert her into a chemical engineer because she was asking too many questions and the staff were busy answering her. So please thank her on her behalf.
But we did not just build Lekki simply to prove that one company could build one refinery in one country. We built it to demonstrate something much bigger: that Africa can build at global scale. And today we bring that confidence from Lekki to Lamu. Not to produce Nigeria in Lamu. Not simply to replicate a facility, but to take the lessons we have learned, combine them with Kenyan talent, East African opportunity and global technology and build something better and bigger and more improved that belongs to the future of this region.
Lekki proved that it can be done. So Lamu must prove that it can be repeated. Mr. President and our other respected presidents, my brother, Prime Minister Abiy, I want to assure you we will come back here and commission this refinery in 40 months from today.
The East African refinery is designed to process approximately 700,000 barrels of crude per day. It will also generate 1,000 megawatts, twice that of Lagos. We have 1,000 megawatts that we're going to generate here. We have 1 million tons of polypropylene and we also have a base oil production that will supply, and we will supply at least 20% of jet fuel consumed by Europe and UK like what we did during this crisis. If not because of the Dangote refinery, a lot of people wouldn't have had the chance to go on summer holiday in Europe. So we're very proud to say that Africa is helping Europe to get jet fuel.
We are not here merely to build tanks, pipelines, processing units and jetties. We are here to help build an industrial ecosystem. And from our experience in Nigeria, this will give birth to an industrial zone, an ecosystem of energy, petrochemicals, logistics, engineering, marine services, manufacturing, skills, technology, small and medium-sized enterprise and thousands of opportunities for people across the value chain. To the Governor of Lamu.
Before we start even our file, which will be in the next couple of days, I want to assure you we are coming here to set up a training school that will train 1,000 of your people to now become anybody who has an engineering degree, diploma or whatever. Tell him that he has a job, his job is guaranteed.
Because when you build an industrial project of this scale, you do not simply build a refinery. You build possibilities around it which none of us can quantify. You can actually imagine whether in the community you have enough people to cook for 60,000 people. You will need help from other countries. You will need help from other neighboring countries. I know that at the height of the project, we are going to have a lot of engineers. But what this will do is that going forward in the future, we don't have to go and bring Chinese, Indians also to come and build our infrastructure. We are going to build capacity here.
So our vision is for this facility to help strengthen the region's energy security and serve a wider East African market and target opportunities across the Indian Ocean, reducing the region's dependence on imported refined petroleum products and retaining more value within the African economies.
You must have heard Britain is threatening to go to court on Monday because President Trump is banning the export of diesel. We want us in Africa to be self-sufficient that nobody should come and threaten us about banning anything.
If you remember, and President George Oloch can actually testify to that, we wanted to buy COVID vaccines. Every single country that were producing those vaccines, they banned the export. We can't as a continent be importing 94% of the drugs we are consuming. Mind you, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, in 24 years, for every four people that you see, one will be an African. We must become self-sufficient. And please, let's join hands together and become self-sufficient.
So for generations ships have actually arrived on the African shores carrying products manufactured elsewhere from our resources that our continent itself possesses. Our ambition is to help change the terms of trade. We must, I said we must, or we want to actually see more ships leave the African shores carrying products made in Africa by Africans for Africa, consumed by the world.
We want to reverse and make sure that we are not the dumping ground of the world. We also want to go and dump our products elsewhere. So that is the Africa we believe in and that's the Africa we will build.
Your Excellency President Ruto, I want to acknowledge your leadership and your government's commitment to creating an environment in which investment of this scale can be contemplated and undertaken within four months. I must congratulate Your Excellency.
I also want to state that His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR has actually championed policies and reforms that have given Nigerian companies like ours the confidence to continue to be bold on the continent. Thank you.
When you are talking about people who really care about Africa, you must mention President Obasanjo for the simple reason that President Obasanjo was one that when he left office within two weeks, he took me to Zambia. He took me to Congo Brazzaville. He took me to Tanzania. These three countries alone we have investment of over 1.2 billion producing cement.
Without your courage, Baba, we wouldn't have been bold. You are the one who really pushed us to be bold by building one single 5 million tons plant. We will forever remain grateful to you.
Projects of this magnitude are never built by companies alone. They require partnership. They require trust. They require infrastructure. They require institutions that understand that private investment and national development mutually reinforce one another. And that is the reason why when you look at it, we are scratching our head one time. It was just over dinner.
Prime Minister, my brother, Prime Minister Abiy said that you could come now, they have, you know, gas. What can we do with gas? But you know my brother, he's always very, very forceful. He kept me there until when I promised him that we'll build one and a half million. And you know how aggressive he is. He said no, no, no, 3 million. I said no, no, 3 million is too much for your market. He said no, no, I'm developing a lot of land. So you know what, I will buy all the 3 million from you for 10 years and that's what we did. I must thank you for your leadership.
So we thank really the government of Kenya and the good people of Lamu County, the relevant agencies and all those who have actually worked tirelessly with us to bring us to this moment. But our most important partnership must be with the people who live here. That is the people of Lamu County. I want to say this clearly. We have not come merely to build in your community. We want to build with your community.
We want the indigenous people to participate in the opportunity created by this investment and there will be many even for us before we finish the refinery. We'll think of something else and we'll be very aggressive. We want young Kenyans and East Africans to acquire skills here. This project should employ around 60,000 people during the construction.
We want the local businesses to become suppliers. We want the entrepreneurs to emerge around this project. We want the economic footprint of this investment to extend far beyond the boundaries of the refinery itself. For me, the true measure of this project will not be the height of its towers or the number of barrels it processes. It will be the difference it makes in the people's lives. A young Kenyan who acquires an engineering skill because of this refinery came here. A local Tanzanian entrepreneur or a Ugandan whose small company becomes part of our supply chain.
Then a Ugandan or a Burundian whose earnings capacity improves because of the opportunities that emerge from this investment. A community that is transformed because industry arrived. A region that becomes more competitive because energy becomes more secure. Those are the numbers that will matter to us alongside the financial numbers.
Industrialization must have a human face. It must create dignity. It must create skills. It must create opportunities. It must create hope. And because Lamu is a place of extraordinary environmental, cultural and historical importance, development must come with responsibility.
We understand that industrialization and environmental stewardship cannot be treated as competing choices. They must coexist. We will therefore work with the relevant authorities, communities and experts to ensure that this project is developed to high standards of safety, environmental responsibility and community engagement. We're here for a very long time and when we build for generations, you must build responsibly.
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, one of Africa's greatest economic weaknesses has been our tendency to think within borders while the rest of the world thinks in markets. Kenya alone is a significant market but East Africa is an even greater opportunity.
The refinery is therefore not simply about one country. It is about a region. It is about Kenya. It is about Uganda. It is about Rwanda. It is about Tanzania. It is about Ethiopia. It is about Southern Sudan. It's about DRC. It is also about Mozambique. It is Zambia and other markets that can benefit from the stronger regional energy ecosystem.
The refinery will not only provide security of supply but will also bring prosperity. We have earmarked up to 30% of equity for the East African countries to ensure that they will also share in the profit that will be generated from the supply and also export. I want to particularly commend both Kenya and Rwanda for moving very quickly to grab that opportunity and I'm sure the rest will come.
When I look at this project site today, I do not see an empty site. I see what can rise from it. I see engineers, I see technicians, I see entrepreneurs, I see ships arriving and also departing. I see products moving across East Africa. I see products going to Europe. I see the sons and daughters of East Africa beaming with pride of a secured future.
I see industries growing around reliable energy. I see young Africans acquiring skills that will remain long after construction is completed. I see a vast opportunity. I see change. I see a new dawn. And above all, I see confidence because Africa's greatest deficit has never been resources. It has never been talent. It has never been ambition.
Too often our greatest deficit has been confidence to undertake projects equal to the scale of our possibilities. That must change. We must stop asking whether Africa can build big. We must start asking how quickly Africa can build what it needs. We must stop believing that transformation will be delivered to us. We must build it by ourselves.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, a groundbreaking ceremony is an act of faith. Today we see earth, tomorrow we'll see foundations, then steel will rise, pipelines will stretch, processing units will take shape, thousands of men and women will come to work. And where we stand today an industrial city will begin to emerge. That is how transformation happens. First as an idea, then as a decision, then as work, and finally as a reality.
I must also thank the Deputy President of Kenya for working round the clock under the leadership of His Excellency the President to make sure all our agreements are done and we signed the agreement yesterday. [applause] We have actually traveled that road before. We know it will not be easy. There will be challenges. You must have seen one yesterday. But what I said, we are not really scared of our people taking us to court. Anybody who wants to cause trouble, we are ready for his trouble and we give him headache.
There will be people who say again that the ambition is too large. But we also know something else. Nothing transformative was ever built by people who were frightened by the size of the challenge. Your Excellency, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, today we break the ground, but more importantly, we raise our expectations of what Africa can become.
May this project become an early branch of peace to us all as Africans. May it demonstrate that together as one, we stand to gain more. May it strengthen and unify our nations while creating opportunities for our people. May it inspire fellow African entrepreneurs to dream and be bold. And may it stand for generations to come as another monument to African enterprise, African partnership and African possibility.
To Her Excellencies that are here, our African leaders. Our group has actually earmarked $50 billion to roll out projects under our current plan which ends in 2030. Your Excellencies, we have more capacity to take on investment across critical sectors, infrastructure, minerals, ports, power, petrochemicals. All you have to do is to tell us what you want and our team will be ready to work with you and deliver it.
I also want to send a special message of condolence to our sister, Her Excellency the President of Tanzania, as she mourns the passing on of her dear husband. May the Almighty Allah bless his soul and comfort the family. My deepest gratitude goes to all the presidents, heads of state. My brother also the Prime Minister is a very special person to me and representatives of presidents who took time from their very, very pressing state matters and decided to honor the invitation by His Excellency President Ruto and register their support. This is just to show you that we in Africa were together and we will build our continent by ourselves.
We are indeed humbled. I must again also extend my special thank you especially to former President Obasanjo. Despite that Baba is almost 90 years, he came from London 11 hours and he is going back today. Baba, we thank you for cutting your trip short and attending this engagement. Baba, we are forever grateful to you. I will continue to say it anywhere with no regret. You are an inspiration to all of us.
God bless the people of Kenya. God bless the people of Ethiopia, Tanzania, Togo, Benin, Burundi, Southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Zambia, and of course Nigeria. And God bless Africa. [applause]
