Ruto tours Dangote's Lagos refinery as group targets $36 billion revenue

Dangote Group is targeting $36 billion in full-year revenue in 2026, following a strong first-half performance, as the conglomerate accelerates its expansion across Africa.

The disclosure came during a visit by Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto to the 700,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos, where he described the facility as “a masterpiece of science, engineering and art.”

Ruto, according to a report by Daily Trust, who visited the refinery after attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, said seeing the facility firsthand had strengthened his confidence in Kenya’s proposed $17 billion East African Oil Refinery and Petrochemical Complex in Lamu.

“Coming here and seeing it for myself, I can confirm that I have seen a masterpiece of science, engineering, with art,” Ruto said.

“To my brother Aliko, congratulations. I always knew Nigerians to be very brave people and go-getters, but I did not anticipate that it was at this scale.”

The Kenyan president said preparations had been concluded for the groundbreaking of the Lamu project, which is expected to become a major regional energy and industrial asset.

“This is not a Kenyan refinery; it is going to be a regional refinery,” Ruto said, adding that the project would support industrialisation, create jobs, strengthen engineering capacity and improve energy security across East Africa.

He also pledged government support to minimise bureaucratic delays.

“The Government of Kenya is 100 per cent behind this project. We have secured the required land and are working to ensure that we spend our time building rather than navigating administrative delays,” he said.

Dangote Group Chief Strategy Officer, Aliyu Suleiman, disclosed that the conglomerate generated about $17 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026 and was on course to double its 2025 revenue of $18 billion.

“The revenues of the Group have grown significantly over the last five years. From $18 billion last year, we are on track to get to $36 billion this year. Our half-year revenue is already about $17 billion,” Suleiman said.

He attributed the growth to investments across cement, sugar, fertiliser, petroleum refining, upstream oil and gas and other strategic businesses.

Suleiman said the group’s expansion was being driven by its Vision 2030 strategy, with plans to significantly increase capital expenditure across Africa.

“Between 2020 and 2025, the Group executed a capital expenditure programme of approximately $50 billion. Over the next five years, we intend to invest twice that amount as we accelerate our expansion across Africa,” he said.

The proposed Lamu refinery and petrochemical complex is expected to play a major role in Dangote Group’s ambition to build a $100 billion African industrial enterprise.

“The East African refinery in Kenya is going to be a key component of our journey and our dream to get to $100 billion. It is going to be a major contributor,” Suleiman said.

Dangote Group has already signed a contract worth more than $450 million with Engineers India Limited for project management consultancy and engineering, procurement and construction management services for the Lamu project.

When completed, the proposed refinery is expected to process 700,000 barrels of crude oil daily, strengthening energy supply and supporting industrial development in East Africa.

Meanwhile, Dangote Group is planning to expand its Nigerian refinery’s capacity from 700,000 barrels per day to about 1.4 million barrels per day, through the addition of a new 750,000-barrel-per-day crude distillation unit.

The planned expansion, alongside the Lamu project and investments in infrastructure, gas, LNG, power, mining and upstream oil and gas, underscores the group’s growing focus on Africa-wide industrial development.

Ruto’s visit therefore highlighted both the scale of Dangote’s existing Nigerian operations and the conglomerate’s ambitions to deepen its industrial footprint across the continent.