Nigerian industrialist set to list 5-10% of $40-$50 billion refinery as early as May across multiple African exchanges in a pan-continental structure that allows naira purchases with dollar dividends.
Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote is pressing ahead with plans to launch Africa’s largest initial public offering, with Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals preparing to raise to $5 billion from investors in a share sale expected to open as early as May, according to financial advisers appointed to manage the transaction.
The offering, valued between $40 billion and $50 billion by analysts, will cover between 5% and 10% of the company’s equity, creating opportunities for both local and international investors to participate in the continent’s largest refining project. Dangote Group has appointed a consortium of advisers, including Stanbic IBTC Capital to coordinate international placements and investor relations, Vetiva Capital Management to focus on retail distribution within Nigeria, and FirstCap to manage placements with institutional investors, particularly pension funds.
On April 1, the Nigerian Exchange Group and the African Securities Exchanges Association convened chief executives from five major African stock exchanges including the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Nairobi Securities Exchange, Ghana Stock Exchange, Ethiopian Securities Exchange, and Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières to discuss how the Dangote Refinery listing could serve as a pilot for cross-border capital formation and improve investor access across multiple African markets. The pan-African structure would allow investors across the continent to buy shares through their local exchanges.
Regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria, are reviewing a proposed structure that would allow investors to buy shares in naira while receiving dividends in US dollars, a model aimed at attracting foreign participation and reducing currency risk. The mechanism draws on projected annual export revenue of approximately $6.4 billion from refined petroleum products and petrochemicals. Dangote publicly described the concept as “You buy in naira, but you get dividends in dollars.”
The refinery, located in the Ibeju Lekki Free Zone near Lagos, stands as the world’s largest single-train crude processing facility. Built for $20 billion, it was commissioned in 2023 and began operations in early 2024 after nearly a decade of construction. It currently processes close to 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day and continues to ramp up production to meet regional demand. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company holds a 7.25% stake in the project.
Operations have already begun reshaping fuel supply across Africa, with the refinery meeting more than 90% of Nigeria’s petrol demand and expanding its export footprint to multiple African countries. In a recent update, Dangote confirmed that 17 cargoes of petrol were shipped to regional markets within a single month. The facility also produces up to three million metric tons of urea fertilizer annually and is expanding polypropylene output, which is widely used in manufacturing industries such as packaging, textiles, and consumer goods.
The International Monetary Fund projected that the refinery could lift Nigeria’s non-oil GDP by 1.5% and boost foreign exchange earnings by $5.5 billion. The company is expected to file its prospectus in April, followed by a nationwide investor roadshow ahead of the offering, with a formal listing on the Nigerian Exchange main board targeted for June to July 2026.
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