Africa’s richest man sells a 3% stake to fund a doubling of capacity and invite millions of small investors into the continent’s largest industrial plant.
Aliko Dangote struck the opening gong on the Nigerian Exchange floor in Lagos on 14 September and started the largest share sale Africa has ever seen. Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals is offering 4.1 billion new shares at 525 naira each. A fully subscribed book would raise 2.15 trillion naira, or about $1.6 billion. A greenshoe could lift the total near $2.1 billion.
The company calls it a “people’s IPO.” The minimum ticket is 10 shares, or 5,250 naira. Applications run through more than 100 banks and fintech apps so traders, teachers and diaspora investors can buy a sliver of the plant that now supplies most of Nigeria’s gasoline. Dangote said the offer is “not simply about listing a company; it is about listing a new possibility for Nigeria, and for Africa.”
A $20 billion plant that flipped Nigeria’s fuel market
The Lekki complex cost roughly $20 billion and took more than a decade to build. Commercial operations began in 2024. Nameplate capacity was 650,000 barrels a day; performance tests this year pushed throughput to 700,000 barrels. The plant has turned Nigeria from a chronic importer of refined products into a regional exporter of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Supply shocks tied to the Iran conflict lifted demand and margins. The refinery sold jet fuel into Western Europe as well as across Africa. First-half 2026 results show the swing: revenue of $13.91 billion, after-tax profit of $1.82 billion and EBITDA of $2.60 billion. That reversed a $476 million loss for all of 2025. Gross refining margin rose to $24.50 a barrel from $13.70 the year before.
What the money will buy
Proceeds will help fund a $14.3 billion expansion that aims to take capacity to 1.4 million barrels a day by 2029. If completed on schedule, the complex would become the world’s largest single-site refinery, overtaking India’s Jamnagar. Dangote has said foundations and steel for the new units should be visible by year-end. The IPO covers only a fraction of the bill; the group already raised $2.5 billion in a July private placement that valued the business near $40 billion. Internal cash and further debt will fill the rest.
At the offer price the existing 120 billion-plus shares imply a valuation of about $47–49 billion. New shares equal roughly 3.3 percent of the enlarged capital. Dangote will still control more than 84 percent after the sale. He has floated a possible U.S. listing in three to four years once the plant has a longer public track record. Separate talks continue on a $17 billion refinery on Kenya’s Lamu Island.
Early demand and the valuation debate
Subscriptions flooded in on day one. Reports put first-hour and first-six-hour inflows in the hundreds of billions of naira, with digital platforms briefly straining under the load. Institutional names from the private placement, including Africa Finance Corporation and Afreximbank, already sit on the register. ADNOC has also signalled interest.
Critics note retail buyers pay a higher implied valuation than the July institutions. Refinery chief executive David Bird said the earlier discount reflected lock-up terms. Once trading starts in late November the market, not the prospectus, will set the price. Some analysts already publish fair-value estimates above the 525-naira offer. Others warn that a $47 billion tag for a single African industrial asset leaves little room for execution slips on the expansion.
Market impact beyond Lagos
The listing is expected to add tens of trillions of naira to Nigerian Exchange capitalisation and create a Dangote cluster—cement, sugar and now the refinery—worth more than 80 trillion naira. For consumers the stakes are simpler. A larger plant means more locally refined fuel, fewer imported cargoes and, in theory, more stable pump prices. For the continent it is a test of whether a homegrown mega-project can tap domestic savings at scale instead of relying only on foreign capital.
Books close on 13 October. Listing is slated for November. Dangote has told investors the refinery could become Africa’s largest company by market value before the year is out. The next 30 days of subscriptions will show how many ordinary Nigerians are prepared to take him up on the invitation.
AI Disclosure: This article was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools and was reviewed and edited by the Glowls News editorial team before publication.