Dangote Launches Africa’s Largest-Ever IPO, Aims to Raise Up to $2.1 Billion for Refinery Expansion
Lagos — Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote on Monday launched what is being described as Africa’s biggest initial public offering to date, opening his Lagos-based oil refinery to public ownership in a bid to raise as much as $2.1 billion from retail investors across the continent.
Dubbed a “people’s IPO,” the offering targets ordinary Nigerians and other African retail investors, with Dangote Petroleum Refinery selling roughly a 3 percent stake in the company. Speaking at the launch event at the Nigerian Exchange Group in Lagos, Dangote, Africa’s richest man, said the initiative was designed to ensure that the refinery’s success benefits millions of people rather than a small circle of billionaires and institutional investors, drawing comparisons to early shareholders of American technology giants who saw substantial returns on their investments over time. Retail investors can participate with a minimum investment of 5,250 naira, about $4, covering a bundle of ten shares priced at 525 naira each.
If fully subscribed, the offering is expected to raise approximately 2.15 trillion naira, or roughly $1.6 billion, though strong demand combined with the exercise of a greenshoe option could push total proceeds to around $2.1 billion. The offer opened to the public on Monday, September 14, 2026, and is scheduled to close on October 13, with the stock expected to be formally listed on the Nigerian Exchange in November. The IPO values the refinery at approximately $49 billion, a notable increase from the roughly $40 billion valuation attached to an earlier private placement round that included investors such as the Africa Finance Corporation, sovereign wealth funds, and other development finance institutions. Dangote will retain approximately 87 percent ownership of the refinery following the offering.
The Lagos-based refinery, which began operations in 2024, currently has a processing capacity of 700,000 barrels per day, a figure that already exceeds domestic fuel demand in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. It has since begun exporting fuel abroad and has grown into the largest supplier of jet fuel to Europe, according to the company. Proceeds from the IPO are expected to go primarily toward an approximately $14 billion expansion project aimed at doubling the refinery’s output to 1.4 million barrels per day by around 2028 to 2029, a move that would make it the largest single-train refinery in the world, surpassing India’s Jamnagar facility. Refinery officials say the expansion, alongside plans for a separate $16 billion refinery project in Lamu, Kenya, forms part of a broader strategy to serve fuel markets across Africa that have historically relied on imports from Europe and the Middle East.
The IPO launch generated significant early interest, with several Nigerian investment platforms, including Bamboo and Cowrywise, reporting unusually high traffic as retail investors rushed to participate, with at least two platforms briefly experiencing outages due to the surge in demand. Analysts have pointed to rising global oil prices and strong domestic fuel demand growth, which has increased by an average of about 7.5 percent annually since the refinery began supplying Nigerian pump stations, as key factors driving investor enthusiasm.
As the offering period continues through mid-October, attention will remain on whether the refinery can translate the scale of investor interest into the long-term operational and financial results needed to justify what is already being hailed as a landmark moment for African capital markets and industrial development.
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