Kenyan President William Ruto on Friday, toured the Dangote Refinery in Lagos ahead of the groundbreaking ceremony for a new refinery project in Lamu, Kenya, describing the Nigerian facility as a demonstration of what African governments, investors and financial institutions can achieve through collaboration.

Ruto, who visited the $20 billion facility at the invitation of the President/Chief Executive of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, said the Kenyan refinery, whose construction is scheduled to be launched next week, would be bigger than the Nigerian project.

The Kenyan president said the planned Dangote East African Refinery in Lamu would transform Kenya’s petroleum sector and strengthen fuel reliability and security across the region.

According to Ruto, the project would also support industrialisation and create about 60,000 jobs when completed.

He said the refinery would generate opportunities for the development of related industries, including fertiliser, chemicals and packaging manufacturing.

Highlighting the scale of the Nigerian refinery, Ruto said the facility 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 daily.

He also noted that the Dangote Group had constructed 120 kilometres of sea cables to facilitate the movement of crude oil from ships to the refinery. (Arise News)