Aliko Dangote says the planned public offering of shares in his 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery is intended to give ordinary Nigerians, including the company’s drivers and cooks, an opportunity to own a stake in the facility.
Dangote, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Industries Limited, made the declaration on Monday at the signing ceremony for the refinery’s Initial Public Offering in Lagos.
“What we are trying to achieve is to make sure our drivers, cooks, servants, and everybody have the opportunity of having stakes in the refinery,” he said.
The offer will put 4.1 billion ordinary shares on the market at ₦525 per share, with each investor required to subscribe to at least 100 shares, valued at ₦52,500. Additional subscriptions will be made in multiples of 50 shares.
The application list is scheduled to open on September 14 and close on October 9, giving prospective investors 25 days to participate.
The transaction represents the refinery’s first public share offer since its commissioning in May 2023. The facility, located in the Lekki Free Zone, was built over nearly a decade at an estimated cost of about $20bn.
With a refining capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, the Dangote facility is Africa’s largest single-train refinery.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the IPO with a view to clearing the way for the company to raise capital from the Nigerian investing public and institutional investors.
The proceeds are earmarked for an expansion that would increase the refinery’s processing capacity from its current operational baseline of 700,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day.
If that target is achieved, the company says the facility would become the world’s largest operating oil refinery, overtaking India’s Jamnagar complex.
The planned equity sale comes after a $2.5bn private placement completed in July, adding another major fundraising exercise to the refinery’s expansion programme.
At the offer price of ₦525, the refinery is valued at about $47bn. Full subscription is projected to increase the total market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange by an estimated 30 to 40 per cent.
The company is also seeking to make the investment attractive to both institutional and retail buyers by proposing dividends in US dollars. According to the information provided, the strategy would draw on foreign exchange earnings from refined petroleum products and petrochemical exports.
The refinery currently supplies more than 80 per cent of Nigeria’s domestic petrol demand, while its future performance is tied to crude feedstock availability, export expansion and refining margins.
The IPO signing ceremony brought together prominent figures from Nigeria’s financial and business sectors, including Zenith Bank Chairman Jim Ovia and Heirs Holdings Chairman Tony Elumelu.
Dangote’s announcement places retail participation at the centre of the public offer. Rather than limiting ownership of the refinery to large financial institutions and wealthy investors, the company is presenting the share sale as an avenue through which ordinary Nigerians can acquire an interest in one of the country’s most significant industrial assets.
The proposed expansion also gives the offer a strategic dimension, as the company seeks additional capital to double its processing capacity and strengthen its position in the regional refined-products market.
The public offer will therefore test both investor appetite for a major industrial asset and the capacity of Nigeria’s capital market to absorb a transaction of such scale.
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