Aliko Dangote signed the paperwork for his refinery’s initial public offering in Lagos on Monday, formally opening the door for Nigerians to buy in, BusinessDay reported. The listing has been tagged Africa’s largest share sale.
Ten shares, priced at ₦525 each, will get an investor in the door for about ₦5,250, or roughly $4, the signed prospectus showed.
How the offer is structured
The offer opens on September 14 and closes October 13, with listing expected in November. If fully subscribed, it would raise about ₦2.15 trillion, or $1.63 billion. Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission approved the terms and cleared an existing 120.13 billion shares.
Key numbers behind the deal:
- Offer size: 4.1 billion shares at ₦525 each (nominal value $0.000013 per share)
- Minimum subscription: 10 shares, about ₦5,250 ( approximately $4)
- Potential raise: ₦2.15 trillion ( approx. $1.63 billion)
- Implied valuation: Close to $49 billion
The company can sell up to 30% more shares than planned if demand is strong enough, subject to regulatory approval, Reuters reported.
FirstCap CEO Ukandu Eme Ukandu said the offer is targeting at least 10 million retail investors, and the deal carries a $400 million underwriting commitment.
Why Dangote calls it “the IPO for the people”
Dangote has been clear about who he wants buying in. He said the offer is built so that ordinary people like drivers, cooks, servants and managers can all hold a stake in a refinery built on the continent’s oil.
“That is why we have called it the IPO for the people. There is no segregation on who can own the shares,” he said at the signing.
He linked the project to Nigeria’s energy needs. “We can’t industrialize if we don’t have energy security,” adding that the refinery is not just about making money.
The statement is in tandem with the group’s Vision 2030 agenda, which has carried Dangote’s industrialization plans into Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia and other African markets.
The refinery took a decade to build
The journey to this milestone cost an arm and a leg. Dangote said the company spent about four years scouting a site in Ogun State before giving up on it.
The firm then spent another year and a half securing land at the Lekki Free Zone, where construction finally began. The plant cost about $20 billion, was inaugurated in 2023, and began operations in 2024.
It is now Africa’s largest refinery and the world’s largest single-train facility, with a nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels a day and a tested throughput of 700,000.
Refinery CEO David Bird said that the expansion plan to double that capacity to 1.4 million barrels a day is already fully sponsored and engineered.
“This is now just a construction exercise,” he said, adding that the company expects to finish by 2028.
He also told CNBC Africa that the aim of this IPO is to drive wealth to Nigerians through the multi-billion-dollar infrastructure.
“We want to drive retail participation so that all Nigerians, no matter their income or status, can be a part of the wealth creation that will come from this immense industrial project.”
What the earnings say
The refinery’s recent financial report was impressive, beating analyst estimates.
In the first half of 2026, it generated $2.60 billion in EBITDA, an 18.7% margin and almost five times what it made in all of 2025, according to a Renaissance Capital Africa report on the company’s financials.
Revenue for the period was $13.91 billion, with net income of $1.82 billion. Utilization also climbed from about 45% in January to capacity by the second quarter.
Renaissance Capital Africa estimates the shares could be worth 32% more than the offer price once the company is valued on the market.
That estimate was based on the rising refining margins, which climbed to $24.50 a barrel in the first half of the year, up from $13.70 in 2025.
A private placement initially set the tone
Before now, Dangote raised $2.5 billion from a private placement in July, BusinessDay reported. That funding round was 3.7 times oversubscribed, with backing from Africa Finance Corp and the African Export-Import Bank.
It priced the company at around $41.7 billion, which suggests strong investor interest.
The difference between the private valuation and the public offer price is particularly key for Dangote himself. He holds 92.3% of the refinery, a stake worth about $44 billion at the offer price.
However, his holding will dilute to around 89.25% once the offer completes.
What all of this means for investors
The offer seems lucrative and below what analysts had estimated. An entry price of #525 into one of the continent’s largest industrial assets could prove profitable for Nigerians. The stakes are also personal for Dangote as well, with tens of billions of dollars riding on the outcome.
