Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, aims to raise at least $1.6 billion from retail investors through a share listing in his refinery business, potentially creating Africa’s largest initial public offering and testing small investors’ interest in equity markets.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals is offering 4.1 billion shares at 525 naira or roughly $0.40, each, a flotation valuing the business at $49 billion.
The offer sets a minimum purchase of just 10 shares, a deliberately low entry point designed to open the IPO to small investors who would otherwise be priced out of participation.
“We’re targeting 10mn shareholders from all over Africa and maybe other parts of the world,” Dangote said Monday as he unveiled the planned listing on the Nigerian stock exchange. “If you can afford 10 shares, you buy 10. If you can afford one million, you buy one million.”
To encourage participation, retail investors will receive two free shares if they hold their investment for a set period.
Company executives aim to foster a similar investment culture in Nigeria as seen during the UK’s British Gas privatization in 1986, which engaged millions of first-time retail investors.
The refinery itself represents one of the most ambitious industrial projects undertaken on the continent in decades.
Dangote defied sceptics by constructing the facility over more than a decade on swampland outside Lagos, transforming Nigeria from a major importer of refined petroleum products into an exporter.
The plant began operations in 2024 and reached full capacity just before the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran roiled global oil markets, a shock that turbocharged profit margins at refineries worldwide, Dangote’s included.
A prospectus is expected when the IPO formally opens on September 14, according to company executives.
Proceeds from the offering will also fund the construction of “tank farms” designed to distribute refined products across the continent, with the first planned for Namibia.
Separately, Dangote is pursuing an even more ambitious expansion, a second 700,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Kenya intended to serve East Africa.
That facility, however, would sit under the holding company structure and remain separate from the Lagos refinery business now going public.
The listing’s continental ambitions have narrowed somewhat since initial planning. Dangote had originally envisioned a pan-African offering with simultaneous listings across multiple African stock exchanges, but cumbersome cross-border regulatory requirements prevented that structure from materialising.
Investors in other African countries would still be able to participate through institutional investment channels rather than direct retail access.
The IPO will close on October 13, with shares expected to begin trading on the Nigerian stock exchange in November, an exchange that ranks among the world’s best performers this year, up 72% in dollar terms.
The offering is being led by Nigeria’s Vetiva Advisory Services, alongside FirstCap, a Nigerian investment bank and Stanbic IBTC Capital, the Nigerian subsidiary of South Africa’s Standard Bank.
The Dangote offering serves as a proof of concept for African capital markets, testing whether retail investors in a region with low stock market participation can be engaged at scale and sustain a lasting culture of equity ownership beyond the initial listing excitement.
