President William Ruto toured the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos, on Friday, September 25, ahead of the planned ground-breaking of the Dangote East African Refinery in Lamu next week. Ruto visited the Nigerian facility on the invitation of Dangote Group President and Chief Executive Officer Aliko Dangote. He was joined by First Lady Rachel Ruto and senior government official.

The tour was conducted five days ahead of the scheduled September 30 ground-breaking ceremony of the proposed Lamu refinery in partnership with Dangote and backed by the Africa Finance Corporation. Upon concluding his tour, Ruto remarked on the size of the Nigerian facility, which he described as a colossal project. Notably, the refinery in Nigeria has a crude oil refining capacity of 700,000 barrels per day and produces more than 100 million litres of petrol, diesel and aviation fuel each day.

“The refinery in Nigeria is a massive investment with a crude oil refining capacity of 700,000 barrels a day and produces more than 100 million litres of petrol, diesel and aviation fuel every day,” Ruto said.

In addition, Ruto took time to acknowledge the infrastructure required to transport the crude into the facility through the sea.

“The company has built 120km of sea cables to move crude from ships to the refinery,” Ruto noted. “This huge achievement is a testament to what African governments, investors and financial institutions can do together.”

Ruto also predicted that the projected Lamu refinery would generate a significant amount of money for Kenya since it will have a processing capacity of 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day and meet the supply of petroleum in the country and the region.

In addition, he added that the proposed refinery would create almost 60,000 jobs directly and 20,000 indirect jobs in addition to boosting Kenya’s downstream industry and value chains of fertiliser, chemicals and packaging. It is essential to clarify that the projected figures are for the proposed Kenyan project, which is independent from the Nigerian operational refinery.

“It will transform the petroleum sector in our country and region by providing fuel reliability and security, scaling up industrialisation and creating 60,000 jobs,” Ruto said.

According to the government, the refinery in Kenya will be part of its strategy to grow domestic refining capabilities and reduce dependence on imported petroleum products. In addition, the government will use the facility to tap into the potential market for downstream products. Therefore, Ruto’s visit to the Nigerian refinery is a precursor to the groundbreaking of the one in Lamu next week.

According to reports, the refinery will have a total estimated investment of between US$15 billion and US$17 billion, although various news outlets reported varying figures. Engineers India Limited separately confirmed that it had won a contract to provide End-to-End project management and engineering, procurement and construction management services for the Kenyan refinery and petrochemical complex worth more than US$450 million.

For Ruto, touring the Dangote refinery in Lekki provides an opportunity to see an operational large-scale facility before the proposed one in Lamu, Kenya, commences operations. The Nigerian refinery is already at full commercial operation, whereas the one in Kenya is at the pre-construction level pending the groundbreaking set for next week.