Ruto said Kenya initially sent a delegation to Nigeria in April last year to explore how the country could source fertiliser from the Dangote Refinery, which also produces fertiliser.
The delegation included his economic adviser David Ndii, Mohamed Hassan and Agriculture officials.
“I had asked them… to go to Nigeria with my Minister for Agriculture because we wanted to have a conversation with the refinery that now produces fertilizer on how Kenya can buy fertilizer from Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote refinery,” Ruto said.
The proposed Lamu refinery
However, the President said the team returned with ideas that went beyond fertiliser supplies.
“When they came back to report to me, they said they saw more than fertiliser supply,” he said.
Ruto said the development prompted him to write to Dangote on April 7, 2026, inviting him to participate in discussions on Africa’s energy security and refining capacity.
He said the invitation was made in the context of the Africa We Will Summit, which brought together African business and political leaders, including the Africa Finance Corporation.
According to Ruto, the central proposition was that infrastructure should become a driver of Africa’s industrialisation.
“I asked him not simply to come and attend another African conference, but to imagine with us an African energy security and refining platform,” Ruto said.
The President argued that Africa faces a contradiction in which it has significant crude oil resources but still relies heavily on refining capacity outside the continent.
Citing figures from Afreximbank, Ruto said Africa produced about 6.8 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2024, while consuming approximately 4.5 million barrels of refined petroleum products daily.
“These two figures tell us two things: we have the resources, and we have the market. Yet too much of the value between the resources and that market still is created elsewhere,” he said.
Dangote Group President and CEO Aliko Dangote speaks during an interview on the planned Lamu refinery and the jobs it is expected to create
Ruto said the proposed approach should therefore focus on increasing local production and value addition.
“The argument therefore is simple: as was said by Aliko, we must produce more of what we consume; we must add value to more of what we produce,” he said.
"Last year in APRIL, I sent a delegation to NIGERIA." ~ Ruto explains how the LAMU PROJECT came by pic.twitter.com/LTEzhOijHU
The remarks come amid growing discussions around Kenya’s proposed partnership with Dangote on oil refining and energy security, as the government seeks to reduce dependence on imported refined petroleum products.
