Billionaire Aliko Dangote is taking his oil refinery to Nigeria’s bourse at a valuation approaching US$50 billion, asking investors to finance the next chapter of a project that has only recently begun producing profits on an industrial scale.
- •Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals signed the documents for its initial public offering (IPO) in Lagos on Monday, clearing a major step toward what is expected to be Africa’s largest-ever share sale.
- •The company will offer 4.1 billion shares at 525 naira apiece (~US$0.4) from 14 September to 13 October, raising about 2.15 trillion naira, or US$1.63 billion, if fully subscribed.
- •Dangote plans to spend US$14.3 billion to double the refinery’s processing capacity to 1.4 million barrels a day by 2029.
“We are opening ownership of this strategic asset to a broader community of investors and creating an opportunity for Nigerians to participate directly in its future growth and value creation,” Dangote said.
The facility, built near Lagos at a cost of about US$20 billion, began operating in 2024 and reached its full 650,000-barrel-a-day nameplate capacity in February. It has since demonstrated throughput of about 700,000 barrels a day.
The refinery generated US$13.91 billion of revenue in the first six months of 2026, producing US$2.50 billion in gross profit, US$2.60 billion in EBITDA, and US$1.82 billion in net income.
At 525 naira a share, the IPO price puts the refinery’s existing 120.13 billion shares at roughly US$47 billion. Once the 4.1 billion new shares are added, the enlarged share count of about 124.23 billion gives the company an implied equity value of approximately 65.22 trillion naira, or about US$49.35 billion at the exchange rate used for the offering.
Dangote’s Play
The offering is deliberately pitched at ordinary Nigerian investors. The minimum subscription is 10 shares, costing 5,250 naira, or about US$3.97. That unusually low entry point turns the IPO into a broad ownership exercise as well as a capital-raising transaction.
The offer will use a Bank Verification Number (BVN)-linked subscription process and digital application channels, allowing individual investors to apply without the cumbersome procedures often associated with large share offerings. The listing targets as many as 10 million Nigerian investors, including lower-income earners and its own drivers, cooks, managers, and other workers.
The intention is to turn the refinery from an asset controlled overwhelmingly by Dangote into one in which a broad population can hold a direct financial stake, with shareholders also positioned to receive dividends if the company declares them.