By Ayomide Otitoju
President and Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has said the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the 650,000 barrels-per-day Dangote Refinery will give ordinary Nigerians an opportunity to own shares in the facility.
Dangote made the statement on Monday while delivering the opening remarks at the refinery’s IPO signing ceremony 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.
Chairman of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia, and Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu, were among prominent financial experts and other dignitaries who attended the ceremony.
Under the IPO, the private refinery will offer 4.1 billion ordinary shares of $0.000013 each at ₦525 per share.
The application list is scheduled to open on September 14, 2026, and close on October 9, 2026, after 25 days.
Investors will be able to subscribe to a minimum of 100 shares, valued at ₦52,500, and thereafter in multiples of 50 shares.
The signing ceremony, led by the management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery, marks the facility’s first public offer since its inauguration in 2023, following nearly a decade of construction and an estimated $20 billion investment.
Located in the Lekki Free Zone, Lagos, the refinery has a refining capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, making it Africa’s largest single-train refinery.
The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the IPO, which the company described as potentially one of the largest capital-market transactions in Nigeria’s history.
Proceeds from the offering are expected to fund an expansion of the refinery’s processing capacity from its current operational baseline of 700,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day.
If achieved, the expansion would make the facility the world’s largest operating oil refinery, surpassing India’s Jamnagar complex.
At the offer price of ₦525 per share, the refinery’s valuation is estimated at about $47 billion. Full subscription could increase the total market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange Group by an estimated 30 to 40 per cent.
To attract institutional and retail investors, the company has proposed paying dividends in US dollars, using foreign exchange earnings from refined products and petrochemical exports to help cushion investors against naira volatility.
The refinery currently meets more than 80 per cent of Nigeria’s domestic petrol demand. However, long-term returns will depend on crude feedstock availability, export growth and refining margins.
Data from the Africa Finance Corporation shows that African countries spend more than $230 billion annually on imported commodities, with refined fuel accounting for over 70 per cent of regional consumption.
The Dangote Group is positioning its refining operations to address part of the regional supply gap and plans to break ground on a 700,000-barrels-per-day coastal refinery in Lamu, Kenya, on September 30.
The September 14 public offering is expected to provide a major test of liquidity on the domestic exchange and investor appetite for large-scale industrial assets.
