Africa’s richest share listing goes to market next week and the global energy market may never be the same again.
Nigeria’s Dangote oil refinery on Monday, 7 September 2026, signed offering documents with advisers and other parties involved in its initial public offering (IPO), a key milestone on its path to Africa’s biggest-ever share sale.
The offering will run from 14 September to 13 October, according to a presentation at a ceremony in Lagos, the country’s commercial capital.
The company plans to sell 4.1 billion ordinary shares at 525 naira each, potentially raising about 2.15-trillion naira if fully subscribed.
In the event of over-subscription, the Dangote refinery and petrochemicals plant may issue up to 30% more shares than the base offer size, subject to regulatory approval, the presentation showed.
The listing will test investor appetite for one of Africa’s most ambitious industrial projects.
The 700,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery, built at a cost of about $20-billion on the outskirts of Lagos, has reshaped Nigeria’s fuel market and benefited from supply disruptions linked to the Iran war, exporting jet fuel across Africa and into Europe.
The plant is part of the sprawling business empire of Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, who built his fortune in cement and also owns sugar and other businesses.
The IPO aims to raise funds for a planned doubling of the refinery’s capacity to 1.4 million bpd. The company has already secured a $400-million underwriting commitment.
Dangote told the signing ceremony he hoped the refinery would become the world’s largest single-train refinery by 2028.
Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the IPO on Friday, officially kicking off Africa’s biggest-ever share sale.
The listing will test investor appetite for a project that has made the African nation a major beneficiary of supply disruptions linked to the Iran war, exporting jet fuel across Africa and into Europe.
The SEC said it had registered the refinery company’s existing 120.13 billion ordinary shares, implying a valuation of around $47-billion, according to Reuters calculations.
“This is not a Nigerian listing. It’s an African listing, and we are going to pay everybody, including the Nigerian listing, in dollar terms.”
“With SEC approval now secured, the refinery is poised to embark on a historic public offering that could significantly broaden investor participation in one of Nigeria’s most transformative industrial ventures,” the company said.
Dangote Group declined to comment on the timing of the offer.
Turkey’s Tupras, which has a similar refining capacity spread across four sites, has a market value of about $12-billion, while the New York-listed HF Sinclair, with capacity of roughly 678,000 bpd, is valued at about $16-billion.
Aliko Dangote told a business meeting in Botswana on Thursday that he aimed to build the refinery, which does not publicly disclose detailed financial results, into one of Africa’s largest companies, generating more than $12-billion in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda).
Dangote, whose net worth is estimated at between $31-billion and $35-billion, said he wanted investors from across the continent to participate in the offering, including Nigerian retail investors.
“This is not a Nigerian listing. It’s an African listing, and we are going to pay everybody, including the Nigerian listing, in dollar terms,” he said. DM
