Africa’s richest man and President of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has said he is prepared to confront legal challenges affecting his businesses, while expressing willingness to reduce his stake in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery to 25 per cent as more Africans acquire shares in the company.
Dangote made the remarks during a fireside chat at the Nairobi Securities Exchange in Kenya, where he discussed the group’s planned investments across Africa, the proposed Lamu refinery and its plans for wider public ownership in Kenya and other African countries.
The comments came amid a legal dispute over land earmarked for the group’s proposed 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Lamu.
The Malindi Environment and Land Court had ordered that the “status quo prevailing” on the land be maintained pending a hearing scheduled for October 14. The order, dated September 25, was made public on Monday.
According to Reuters, the case was filed by 133 residents of Chandavai in Lamu County, who claim that the land designated for the refinery forms part of their ancestral heritage and that their families have lived and farmed there for generations.
The Dangote Group said the court order would not stop the planned groundbreaking ceremony, although some activities at the site could be affected.
“The court has not halted the groundbreaking ceremony of the refinery at this stage. However, activities at the site may be affected by the ruling as both parties are required not to carry out activities until the case is heard on 14th October.”
Dangote, however, expressed confidence that the project would proceed despite the legal dispute, describing such challenges as familiar territory for his business group.
“I’m sure some of you must have seen that one court has given an order that we shouldn’t do any construction? I said no, no. This is normal for us in Africa. In fact, this is even small,” he told investors at the event.
He also declared that his group was prepared to confront those seeking to disrupt its projects.
“Anyone who wants to cause trouble, we are ready for them,” he declared.
Dangote cited a previous experience in Senegal, where he said one of the group’s factories was shut down for a year before the company pursued the matter through the courts.
“In Senegal, it’s not even the court. They stopped our factory for one year. We went up to the Supreme Court to get a judgement. So anybody who wants to cause trouble, we are ready for them,” Dangote said.
The proposed Lamu refinery is expected to have a processing capacity of 700,000 barrels per day and is designed to replicate the Dangote refinery in Nigeria. The project is estimated to cost between $15 billion and $16 billion and is expected to be completed by 2030.
Dangote described Kenya as an important part of his group’s expansion plans, stressing that the company considers countries across the continent its home.
“We’re taking Kenya as our home. It is home here, and that’s why we’re here to invest. Anywhere in Africa is home, because we understand the issues, we understand the problems,” he said.
He added that the Lamu project had progressed rapidly from discussions to implementation, with construction equipment already deployed to the site.
According to Dangote, the refinery is also expected to generate substantial employment opportunities, with more than 60,000 people potentially required during the construction phase.
“We will try as much as possible to train a lot of people here because part of the project will need over 60,000 people working there,” he said.
He further said the project would create opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises around the refinery, adding that the facility would attract other businesses and industries to Lamu rather than operate as an isolated project.
