Ruto Tours Dangote Refinery in Lagos Ahead of Kenya's Lamu Groundbreaking

Kenyan President William Ruto toured the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos State on Friday, September 25, 2026, at the invitation of Dangote Group President and Chief Executive Officer, Aliko Dangote. The visit came just days before Kenya breaks ground on a planned Dangote refinery in Lamu on September 30, a project expected to create about 60,000 jobs when completed.

What Ruto saw in Lekki

Sharing details of the visit on his official X account, Ruto described the Lagos refinery as an example of what African governments, private investors and financial institutions can achieve through collaboration. He said the facility has a crude refining capacity of 700,000 barrels per day and produces more than 100 million litres of petrol, diesel and aviation fuel daily.

The Dangote refinery sits within the Lekki Free Zone and is currently Africa's largest single-train crude oil refinery. Its processing capacity stands at 700,000 barrels per day, with Dangote planning an eventual expansion to 1.4 million barrels per day. The complex is more than a conventional refinery, combining crude processing, storage, marine infrastructure, pipelines, petrochemicals and logistics facilities.

The Lamu project

The planned Dangote refinery in Lamu is expected to have a refining capacity of 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day, making it one of the largest refinery projects in Africa and the biggest planned refinery in East Africa. It is to be developed within the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor.

Ruto said the refinery would transform Kenya's petroleum industry by improving fuel reliability and security, supporting industrialisation and creating about 60,000 jobs. He added that industries linked to fertiliser production, chemicals and packaging could emerge as spin-off businesses once the facility is completed.

The Kenyan government expects the refinery to strengthen domestic energy security while supplying petroleum products to markets across East and Central Africa. Construction is expected to take several years after the September 30 groundbreaking.

Crude supply questions

The project faces the challenge of securing sufficient crude supplies. Analysts have raised questions about whether regional oil production from Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan will be enough to keep a 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery operating at full capacity.

Ruto's tour of the Lagos facility comes at a significant moment for Kenya as it prepares to begin work on its own large-scale refinery, a project expected to combine fuel production, industrial development and tens of thousands of jobs. For Nigeria, the visit underscores the Dangote refinery's standing as a reference point for large-scale African industrial projects.