Nigerian billionaire and president of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has blamed local marketers and international oil companies for fueling protests over land earmarked for his proposed $16bn oil refinery in Lamu, Kenya.
Dangote and the President of Kenya, William Ruto, performed the groundbreaking ceremony for the refinery in Lamu on Wednesday. This comes even as a court halted construction activities due to a land dispute.
Dangote made the allegation while speaking to the BBC’s Focus on Africa program, amid protests by some residents over compensation for land acquired for the refinery project.
The refinery is expected to have a processing capacity of 700,000 barrels per day when completed in 2030. Dangote disputed claims that the company had taken more land than it required, saying it only used the portion allocated to it by the Kenyan government.
“They said some people are demonstrating; demonstrating about what? Have you ever seen people demonstrating against themselves in terms of development?” he asked.
Africa’s richest man dismissed the protests as “games played by local marketers and international players,” insisting the refinery would go ahead and would be ready by 2030 as planned.
The groundbreaking was also attended by the leaders of Uganda, Ethiopia, Togo, and Benin. Dangote has offered regional governments a combined 30 percent stake in the refinery, according to Reuters.
The billionaire insisted that the protests would not stop the refinery project, which he described as his largest proposed investment outside Nigeria.
The project is expected to become the largest refinery in East Africa and Kenya’s biggest infrastructure project since independence, surpassing the $5.1bn Standard Gauge Railway.
Dangote said the refinery would demonstrate that the success recorded with his 700,000bpd refinery in Nigeria could be replicated elsewhere on the continent.
“Lekki proved that it can be done; Lamu must prove that it can be repeated,” he said.
However, the Save Lamu campaign group has raised concerns about the environmental impact of the project on the local community. The co-founder of the group, Walid Ali, told the BBC that residents wanted to see the findings of the environmental impact assessment and the proposed mitigation measures.
A group of 133 Lamu residents had approached the Kenyan High Court in a bid to stop construction work. Following the legal action, activities including excavation and construction on the disputed land have been restricted pending the next court hearing, scheduled for October 14.
Dangote said the refinery would create about 60,000 jobs at the peak of construction, with local communities expected to benefit from the project.
