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President/Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has warned that allowing imported products to replace locally produced goods will deepen economic hardship and weaken domestic industry, in Africa.
He argued that industrial development in Africa would depend on policies that protect local producers, strengthen productive capacity and maintain jobs on the continent.
He revealed this in a conversation with Financial Times journalist David Pilling where he also revealed plans to expand the Dangote group’s petroleum distribution network throughout Africa.
This followed the acquisition of a 25 percent stake in a petroleum products pipeline network in Kenya, and he called on African governments to protect domestic industries from unfair foreign competition.
Dangote said the group was investing in pipelines, storage facilities and supply corridors in East, Central and Southern Africa to address petroleum supply constraints and improve movement of refined products between markets.
The group, he said, is developing a distribution corridor connecting Djibouti with Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, while projects in Cameroon and Namibia are also at various stages of development.
He said the group’s investment in the Kenyan pipeline network was part of a broader plan to build an integrated petroleum distribution system across the continent.
“We are very aggressive on this,” Dangote said in response to questions about the group’s plans to develop depots, pipelines and other petroleum distribution infrastructure.
“Let me tell you, yesterday, with the support of the President of Kenya, we purchased 25 percent of the pipeline network for distribution of petroleum products,” he said.
Dangote identified Namibia as a strategic location to supply refined petroleum products from the Dangote Oil Refinery in Lagos to markets in Southern Africa, including Botswana and South Africa.
“From our refinery to Namibia it is only about a four-day journey,” he said, outlining plans for a distribution corridor through Zimbabwe and Zambia, with strategically located storage and transport facilities to serve several countries.
The expansion comes at the same time as the group plans to build a refinery in Lamu, Kenya, with a proposed capacity of around 700,000 barrels per day.
Dangote said the investment was motivated by industrial and mining activities in East Africa, increasing energy needs and persistent difficulties in accessing diesel fuel and other petroleum products.
He explained that the proposed refinery would source crude oil from different markets and not rely solely on production from Uganda or Kenya.
According to him, the selection of Lamu was based on technical assessments in several locations, with the main considerations being access to deep water, marine facilities and adequate water resources.
Africa’s richest man said the investment decision was reached within four months, although he alleged that commercial interests had attempted to derail the project through legal proceedings shortly before it was made public.
