Kenyan President William Ruto has described the Dangote Refinery in Lagos as a remarkable combination of science, engineering and creativity, during a tour on Friday, September 25, 2026. The 650,000-barrel-per-day facility, located in the Lekki area of Lagos, exceeded his expectations, he said.
Ruto's Reaction to the Scale of the Refinery
Accompanied by his wife, Rachel Ruto, the Kenyan president said the scale of the project was beyond what he had imagined. "I always knew Nigerians to be very great people, very aggressive go-getters. But I didn’t anticipate that it was at this scale," Ruto said during the visit.
He also expressed Kenya’s full support for Dangote Group’s broader expansion plans across the continent. "I just want to tell the Dangote family here that the government of Kenya is 100 per cent behind this goal, our goal," he added.
Dangote's Vision 2030 and $50 Billion Investment Target
Aliko Dangote, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Industries Limited, said the group is planning massive investments across Africa as part of its Vision 2030 strategy, which aims to drive industrialisation continent-wide. Kenya is expected to play a key role in this plan.
"We are going to spend almost $50 billion investments in Africa to industrialise our continent, and that’s why Kenya is taking part of that," Dangote said. He added that the group will significantly expand its energy investments in Kenya, including a major power project in Lamu.
"Our power plant is very big, but the whole of Lamu would actually be double because we are going to produce about 1,000 megawatts in Lamu, and we will have 500 megawatts to sell to the government of Kenya," he said.
Financial Targets and the Lamu Refinery Project
The Dangote Group is targeting group revenue of $110 billion by 2030, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) projected to rise to $30 billion from an estimated $10 billion in 2026.
Construction of a new 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Lamu, Kenya, is scheduled to begin on September 30. The project is expected to cost between $15 billion and $16 billion and take about three years to complete.
The proposed refinery is strategically located to serve Kenya and other East African markets, including South Sudan, Uganda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is expected to reduce the region’s dependence on imported petroleum products, as East African countries currently source a large share of their fuel supplies from outside the continent.
