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.
“The solution wasn’t in Europe or Asia. The solution was in Nigeria for a problem that disturbed Nigeria for years.
“I dare say, ladies and gentlemen, we have in this room the political leadership, we have the industrialists, we have the financials to transform our continent and we must waste no time looking any further,” he said.
Dangote, who was present at the summit, pledged support for the proposed East African refinery if regional governments committed their backing.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited had for years promised to rehabilitate the country’s four public refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, but repeated turn-around maintenance exercises yielded little result, leaving private investment to fill the gap.
Critics, however, have noted that fuel supply and pricing pressures have not fully eased in Nigeria since the Dangote refinery came on stream, with pump prices remaining high for many Nigerians.
Credit: punchng.com
