Lamu Port, on Kenya’s northern coast, has not always been a magnet for energy investors. However, this week, Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote put it firmly back on the map after indicating that it could host a planned oil refinery worth about $17 billion.
The scale of investment could revive Lamu’s role as a potential anchor for the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor (Lapsset), a project conceived by the three countries more than a decade ago but whose full realisation has long remained uncertain.
