Kenya’s President William Ruto has credited Aliko Dangote with solving a fuel scarcity crisis that Nigeria’s oil wealth failed to prevent for decades, as he rallied support for a planned East African refinery modelled on the Lagos facility.
Ruto made the remarks on Wednesday at an infrastructure summit in Nairobi while making the case for African-led solutions to the continent’s energy challenges.
“Nigeria has been a producer of oil for all the years that we know. Yet, when you went to Nigeria, there were queues of people looking for fuel in petrol stations for a long time.
“Until one African stepped forward and built a refinery, Aliko Dangote,” he said.
The Kenyan president used the example to argue that Africa possessed the human and financial capital to solve its own problems, without looking to Europe or Asia.
Ruto urged regional leaders, industrialists and financiers present at the summit to act without delay.
