Dangote opens Africa’s biggest-ever share sale, targets $2.1bn for refinery expansion

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has opened Africa’s largest-ever share sale, offering members of the public a stake in his oil refinery in a deal that could pull in as much as $2.1 billion.

The initial public offering covers around 3% of the Dangote refinery, with shares priced at 525 naira each; a full subscription would raise roughly 2.15 trillion naira, and the figure could climb higher if underwriters exercise an option to issue additional shares once the offer closes on October 13.

Dangote has framed the move as a chance for ordinary Nigerians to share directly in the plant’s success, and reports suggest retail investors have responded with enthusiasm, some drawing on personal savings to buy in.

The refinery itself, located in the Lekki Free Zone near Lagos, began production in 2024 after a construction process that stretched over a decade, delayed at various points by the sheer scale of the project, which required moving 65 million cubic metres of sand for land reclamation and later by the Covid-19 pandemic.

With a processing capacity of 650,000 barrels a day, it ranks as the seventh-largest refinery in the world and now supplies more than 70% of Nigeria’s domestic fuel needs, a dramatic shift for a country that, despite being Africa’s biggest crude oil producer, had long depended on imported fuel due to weak local refining capacity.

Dangote, 67, built his roughly $28 billion fortune in cement and sugar before expanding operations into 16 other African countries; his Dangote Cement remains the continent’s largest cement producer.

Proceeds from the share sale are earmarked for doubling the refinery’s current capacity, a move that would further cement its role in reshaping Nigeria’s energy landscape and, by extension, its position in African and global oil markets.