Actually, you know, it started as a discussion between myself and the managing director of African Finance Corporation. He was trying to sort of invite me to come down to Nairobi, that he had a conference and he wanted me to participate in the conference, and also the president wanted to see me to discuss about supply of fertilizer. That is how it all started. So it was at that meeting now we're talking about refinery and core, and we got onto the stage because in the holding room we had already discussed that yes, we will be able to do a refinery, and that is one good thing about our own, you know, group, that if we see something that is real, that is good, I can make a commitment on behalf of the board. I'll go later and...
So that was in, I think, April, and I think, you know, so we started discussing about how do we do it, blah blah blah. So at the end of the day we now said, okay, yes, we will now do it. But we are all thinking then of Tanga because of the pipeline from Uganda into Tanga. But later on, the most suitable place that we realized that we can put up this refinery, where they have enough water, they have depth in terms of the sea, and good land, is Lamu. So that's why we now decided not Mombasa, not Tanga, but Lamu.
My second question would be: just over five years ago, you had intentions of setting up something else here in the gap, something else here in the country, and that would be cement. But then you retreated. Perhaps tell us what happened there and why now you seem to have a bit of a change of heart. I know a lot of people...
Why are you bringing the issue of cement?
I asked that because there's been a bit of discussion around corruption and kickbacks, so maybe has something changed?
Well, let's not go into that, but I mean, you're right. We tried to even that time. What really happened, when I went to the current president, he was then deputy president, he personally put me in his car and said, let's go to the president, tell him what happened. And that was really what happened. I don't want to go into details, you know, and, you know, spoil people's names. But the corruption takes two people to activate it: the person asking and the giver. So we don't give because we believe we are bringing jobs and prosperity to the country, and why should I give? You know, we are a listed company. You know, if we are found giving bribes, definitely we will go to jail. Another one to go to jail.
My next one would be: now that you're already in the region, are you looking at other industries? Fertilizer, you know, we've spoken a lot about cement.
Well, we're opening fertilizer. We're opening a blending plant, a big one. Kenya is one market that we don't actually play with. As we speak, outside Nigeria, our next biggest investment is East Africa, but Kenya is one, you know, because by the time we finish investing here, just this refinery alone is $16 billion, and is the largest investment, you know, that an African invests in Africa.
Mr. Dangote, I want to close with one last question, and this is really important for Kenyans and East Africans at large. Kenya is not an oil-producing country just yet, and neither are many countries in the region. Where are you going to be sourcing this amount of crude?
Well, sourcing the crude, like what I said, you know, Kenya will start producing crude very soon. Uganda is going to start very soon, and other neighboring countries too in East Africa will start producing their own crude. We are not yet there with 700,000, but it will happen.
Where then do you take the finished products? Which markets are you looking at?
We are not only supplying jet fuel, diesel, and, you know, gasoline, which is PMS that you use in your car. We are also supplying the plastic industries. We have polypropylene, which will satisfy and make sure they guarantee the supply of this into our plastic industries. Okay. We are also going to do base oil, which will actually be supplied. We are also going to participate in increasing the power, okay, that Kenya generates. You know, one of the things that is actually slowing the growth of Africa is lack of electricity, lack of power. And what we want to do also in, you know, this, in which I am in discussion with the president, also president of North Kenya alone, Zambia, is to see how do we mobilize resources. We have a lot of resources. That's why we're investing 50 billion in just between, in the next four years, $50 billion in different industries, and one of which is power. We are saying 10,000 megawatt.
An international bank will not lend you money to develop your continent. Forget it. But the local banks that we have, they understand your language, they understand the risk, and we will not be deterred. You know, I mean, what do we really take Kenya as? We have taken Kenya as our home. It is home here, and that's why we are here to, you know, to invest. Anywhere in Africa is home, you know, because we understand the issues, we understand the, you know, problems.
Yesterday, as I was landing here at night, you know, because I always try to switch off my Wi-Fi on my plane, you know, so that I'll be able to rest. I don't want to be disturbed. But immediately when I open my phone, they say, 'Oh, yeah, you know, by Bloomberg, I'm sure some of you must have seen it. One court have given an order that we shouldn't do any construction.' I said, 'No, no, this is normal for us in Africa. You know, we don't care. We don't care. In fact, this is even small. In, in, Synagal is not even court. We went, they stopped even our, our factory for one year. We went up to the Supreme Court to get a judgment. So anybody who wants to cause trouble, we're ready for them.'
Excellent. Excellent. And I'm, I'm, I'm glad you've addressed that as well. Um, uh, you know...
No, we're not bothered. Don't worry. We know who are the people doing all these things. So we'll face them.
