NAIROBI

President William Ruto toured the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos, on Friday at the invitation of Dangote Group President and CEO Aliko Dangote, days before the planned groundbreaking of the Dangote East African Refinery in Lamu.

The proposed Lamu refinery is planned to process 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day and is estimated to cost about $16 billion, or roughly Sh2 trillion. Other reports put the cost at between $15 billion and $17 billion. The Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) is backing the project alongside Dangote’s companies.

Ruto is scheduled to lead the groundbreaking in Lamu on Wednesday, Sept. 30.

In a social media post after the tour, Ruto said the Lagos refinery processes 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day and produces more than 100 million liters of refined products daily.

He said the planned refinery in Lamu would be larger than the Nigerian facility and would create 60,000 jobs while strengthening regional energy security.​‌

“This huge achievement is a testament of what African governments, investors and financial institutions can do together,” Ruto said.

Ruto said the planned refinery in Lamu would be bigger than the Lagos facility and would transform Kenya’s petroleum sector by improving fuel reliability and security, supporting industrialization and creating 60,000 jobs.

He said the project would also spur related industries, including fertilizer, chemical and packaging manufacturing.

On Sept. 21, Ruto met Dangote and Africa Finance Corporation Chief Executive Samaila Zubairu on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. He said afterward that Kenya was ready to break ground on the refinery.

Engineers India Ltd. has been contracted to provide project management and engineering consultancy services for $450 million, or about Sh58.1 billion, according to the Daily Nation.

The project is expected to process crude oil from Kenya’s oil fields in Lokichar, Turkana County, and supply markets across East and Central Africa.