Kenyan President William Ruto on Friday toured Africa’s largest oil refinery in Lekki, Lagos State, at the invitation of Dangote Group President and CEO Aliko Dangote, days before Kenya is scheduled to break ground on a similar mega-project in Lamu.
Ruto, accompanied by First Lady Rachel Ruto and senior officials, inspected the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals Complex, which has a crude processing capacity of 700,000 barrels per day and produces more than 100 million litres of petrol, diesel and aviation fuel daily. The facility also includes 120 kilometres of subsea pipelines that transport crude from tankers to the plant.
“This huge achievement is a testament of what African governments, investors and financial institutions can do together,” Ruto said after the tour.
He added that the planned Dangote East African Refinery in Lamu “will be bigger” and is expected to create 60,000 jobs while transforming Kenya’s petroleum sector and supporting regional energy security.
The Lamu project, estimated at about Ksh2.2 trillion, is slated to process 700,000 barrels of crude per day. Groundbreaking is planned for 30 September 2026. Officials say the plant will also spur downstream industries in fertilisers, chemicals and packaging once operational.
The visit follows talks last week in New York between Ruto, Dangote and Africa Finance Corporation CEO Samaila Zubairu on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Those discussions focused on financing and final preparations for the Kenyan refinery.
Dangote is simultaneously planning to expand the Lagos refinery to 1.4 million barrels per day. Combined with the Lamu facility, the group’s targeted African refining capacity would reach 2.1 million barrels per day.
The Lagos tour offered Ruto a first-hand look at a completed large-scale African refining operation as Kenya moves its own project from planning into construction.
